Although they can't put their finger on what a Republican looks like, when GOP voters think someone looks Republican, that candidate gets more votes.
The more Republican politicians seemed to look to people, the more votes they gained in red states at the actual polls. The facial stereotypes, in other words, predicted the outcomes of real elections. But that wasn't the strangest finding. Idea Lobby
Strangely ...
To our even greater surprise,Olivola said,we found no relationship whatsoever for left-leaning states. We certainly hadn't predicted that. That was a big surprise.
They also experimented on individuals (not just surveys of states) and found ...
... conservatives are more likely to be influenced by how Republican they think a candidate looks, whether they live in Massachusetts or Alabama. (It also means, oddly, that a Democratic candidate who looks sort of Republican may actually pick up a couple of Republican voters this way in a right-leaning district.)
And this is all the more mystifying given that voters don't have to size up a politician's cheekbones to figure out who the real Republican is. That information is readily available — right there on the ballot.
Why would a Republican vote for the more Republican-looking candidate if the ballot is telling them, ‘No, the other guys is actually a Republican'? Why would they be swayed to do that? We don't know. It is kind of worrying.
For more, see Republicans like Candidates Who Look Republican by , January 10, 2012 at Miller-McCune.
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