The election nears. You know the candidate's histories and backgrounds.  You know their stands on the issues that matter to you most. So what determines your vote?  How they look, obviously!

British researchers asked local politicians in the UK to rate their own personality, and then asked scores of their colleagues to anonymously rate their performance in the office.
Then researchers showed more than 500 participants from around the world photos of the politicians and asked them to rate what they thought their personalities would be like.
All this was merged together with percentage of the vote candidates received and job performance and surprise- they found voters were more likely to choose the politicians who they thought looked the most competent, even if they weren't judged to be that way by their peers who know them best.
In other words, since voters aren't able to see what politicians are required to do in their day-to-day work, researchers conclude voters rely on characteristics that might seem to matter for leadership (like a strong appearance) but may not actually be that important to getting the job done!  (EurekAlert)

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