Facial Similarity Between Voters and Candidates Causes Influence
Social science research demonstrates that people are drawn to others perceived as similar. We extend this finding to political candidates by comparing the relative effects of candidate familiarity as well as partisan, issue, gender, and facial similarity on voters’ evaluations of candidates. Using morphing software, we created tailored facial images of various political candidates whose faces became subtly similar to over 1000 voters across the United States. Evidence across three studies in separate elections over a period of three years suggests that even in high-profile elections, voters base their decisions partly on facial similarity.
Citation:
Jeremy Bailenson, Shanto Iyengar, and Nick Yee (2009) ,"Facial Similarity Between Voters and Candidates Causes Influence", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36, eds. Ann L. McGill and Sharon Shavitt, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 104-107.
Authors
Jeremy Bailenson, Stanford University, USA
Shanto Iyengar, Stanford University, USA
Nick Yee, Stanford University, USA
Volume
NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 36 | 2009
Share Proceeding
Featured papers
See MoreFeatured
The Effect of Future Focus on Self-Control is Moderated by Self-Efficacy
Rafay A Siddiqui, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Jane Park, University of California Riverside, USA
Frank May, Virginia Tech, USA
Featured
I3. Hormonal Effects on Materialism and the Moderating Role of Intrasexual Competition
Marcelo Vinhal Nepomuceno, HEC Montreal, Canada
Cristina Maria de Aguiar Pastore, Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná - PUCPR
Eric Stenstrom, Miami University, Ohio
Featured
Predicting Consumer Brand Recall and Choice Using Large-Scale Text Corpora
Zhihao Zhang, University of California Berkeley, USA
Aniruddha Nrusimha, University of California Berkeley, USA
Ming Hsu, University of California Berkeley, USA