YOU WILL KNOW THEM BY THEIR FACES

From PLoS ONE, an interactive open-access journal for the communication of all peer-reviewed scientific and medical research, comes an interesting study, "Democrats And Republicans Can Be Differentiated By Their Faces". The abstract reads:

"In Study 1, perceivers were able to accurately distinguish whether U.S. Senate candidates were either Democrats or Republicans based on photos of their faces. Study 2 showed that these effects extended to Democrat and Republican college students, based on their senior yearbook photos. Study 3 then showed that these judgments were related to differences in perceived traits among the Democrat and Republican faces. Republicans were perceived as more powerful than Democrats. Moreover, as individual targets were perceived to be more powerful, they were more likely to be perceived as Republicans by others. Similarly, as individual targets were perceived to be warmer, they were more likely to be perceived as Democrats."

The study was conducted by Nicholas O. Rule and Nalini Ambady, Department of Psychology, Tufts University.

So, power or compassion, that seems to be the binary. No wonder we're in trouble.


[Cross-posted at Group News Blog.]