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Political Affiliation Can Be Differentiated By Appearance

Posted by samzenpus on from the if-it-looks-like-a-liberal-and-quacks-like-a-liberal dept.

quaith writes "It's not the way they dress, but the appearance of their face. A study published in PLoS One by Nicholas O. Rule and Nalini Ambady of Tufts University used closely cropped greyscale photos of people's faces, standardized for size. Undergrads were asked to categorize each person as either a Democrat or Republican. In the first study, students were able to differentiate Republican from Democrat senate candidates. In the second, students were able to differentiate the political affiliation of other college students. Accuracy in both studies was about 60% — not perfect, but way better than chance."

2 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The majority of white people in the US, who voted for McCain, are hicks?

  2. What is the point of this w/o socialized medicine? by StormyWeather · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    When the progressives nationalized healthcare system started going up in smoke I assumed eugenics wouldn't stand a chance of coming back, because if you can't force "healthcare" on people then what good is sorting them out by appearance. I'm not sure where this is going unless they truly feel they can get the socialized healthcare (circa germany turn of the century) fully implemented.

    Appearance for political stance
    Head bumps for intelligence
    eyebrows for demeanor
    nose shape for whether you should be humanely euthanized.

    We've seen this movie before.