Say You Wouldn't Think About It

Yahoo News reports on some recent scientific findings:

"We show that inferences of competence, based solely on the facial appearance of political candidates, and with no prior knowledge about the person, predict the outcomes of elections for the US Congress," said Alexander Todorov of Princeton University, the study leader, in Science magazine.

[...]

"The findings suggest that rapid, unreflective trait inferences can contribute to voting choices, which are widely assumed to be based primarily on rational and deliberative considerations," said Todorov.

"Our findings have challenging implications for the rationality of voting preferences, adding to other findings that consequential decision can be more 'shallow' than we would like to believe," he added.

The subtitle of the study--Americans Aren't Dumb, They Just Vote that Way.

Todorov and his team of scientists are next going to examine these questions:

1) Why do people say, "He's a liar, but he's a steadfast liar so I trust him"?
2) Given the right ballot, how many Jews will vote for Buchanan?
3) How long can one blog keep up a Viagra joke?