XPost: misc.survivalism, talk.politics.guns, or.politics   
   XPost: alt.survival   
   From: otto@washingtonpost.com   
      
   Research has found that being attractive influences many things   
   in a person’s life — their salary, their popularity and grades   
   in school, even the prison sentences they receive. So why not   
   their politics?   
      
   A recently published study in the Journal of Public Economics   
   concludes that the attractiveness of a candidate does correlate   
   with their politics. They find that politicians on the right are   
   more good looking in Europe, the United States and Australia.   
      
   The study shows correlation, not causation, but the researchers   
   float a simple economic explanation for why this might happen.   
   Numerous studies have shown that good-looking people are likely   
   to earn more, and that people who earn more are typically more   
   opposed to redistributive policies, like the progressive taxes   
   and welfare programs favored by the left.   
      
   The researchers also offer a more general psychological   
   explanation for the trend: That good-looking people are often   
   treated better than others, and thus see the world as a more   
   just place. Past studies have found that the more attractive   
   people believe themselves to be, the lower their preference for   
   egalitarianism, a value typically associated with the political   
   left.   
      
   In their first experiment, the researchers showed respondents   
   photographs of political candidates in Finnish municipal and   
   parliamentary elections, members of the European Parliament,   
   U.S. candidates for Senate and governor, and candidates for   
   Australia’s House of Representatives. They asked participants to   
   rate the photographs on a five-point scale. The results   
   suggested that politicians on the right are more beautiful on   
   all three continents.   
      
   In a separate experiment, the researchers analyzed elections in   
   Finland. They say these elections are easier to study because   
   most races feature multiple candidates competing for office — in   
   contrast to races in the United States, which typically have   
   just two major candidates.   
      
   The researchers found that Republican voters care more about   
   appearance than Democratic voters do, but only if the voters   
   don't have much information about the candidates and have to   
   rely largely on appearance — in city-level elections, for   
   example.   
      
   But in elections that give voters a lot of information – like   
   parliamentary elections when candidates are well covered by TV   
   news and in the newspaper – politicians' appearance matters   
   equally to voters regardless of party or ideology.   
      
   In low-information city elections, a beauty increase of one   
   standard deviation attracts about 20 percent more votes for the   
   average candidate on the right and about 8 percent more votes   
   for the average candidate on the left, the study finds. In high-   
   information parliamentary elections, the figure is roughly 14   
   percent for candidates on both the left and right.   
      
   The researchers also suggest that voters correctly see   
   candidates who are more good looking as more likely to be   
   conservative. When voters don’t know much about candidates, they   
   tend to use beauty as a cue for ideology.   
      
   https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/10/conservat   
   ives-really-are-better-looking-research-says/   
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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