Women With More Feminine Faces Do Better in Politics
At The Health Site:
Researchers have highlighted voters' perception of traditional femininity, political competence. According to the Dartmouth College-led study, female politicians' success can be predicted by their facial features, especially in conservative states where women with more feminine faces tend to do better at the ballot box.
The researchers used software called MouseTracker that was developed by the study's senior author Jon Freeman, an assistant professor and director of the Social Cognitive and Neural Sciences Lab at Dartmouth.
"The Dartmouth-led study demonstrates for the first time that gendered cues uniquely predict female politicians' electoral success above and beyond competence, suggesting a discrepancy between traits used to evaluate male and female politicians," Health Site states.
"Freeman said that it's important to examine how facial cues could inadvertently affect female politicians' electoral success, especially given the possibility of a female U.S. president in the near future and the rising number of women in Congress," according to Health Site.
