A Catwalk to Congress? Appearance-Based Effects in the Elections to the U.S. House of Representatives 2016

• Author: Sebastian Jäckle,Pascal D. König,Thomas Metz,Georg Wenzelburger
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X19875710
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X19875710

American Politics Research

2020, Vol. 48(4) 427 –441

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/1532673X19875710

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Article

“What Is Beautiful Is Good”—At Least

for Most of the Time and Most of the

People

When Dion, Berscheid & Walster (1972) wrote these words

more than 40 years ago, they were the first to show empiri-

cally that beautiful people are “assumed to possess more

socially desirable personality traits” and “expected to lead

better lives” (Dion et al., 1972, p. 285). Since then, a “beauty

premium” (Praino, Stockemer, & Ratis, 2014, 1097) has been

detected in sociological, economic, and psychological studies

within virtually all fields of life. Attractive babies get more

affectionate care by their mothers (Langlois, Ritter, Casey, &

Sawin, 1995), good-looking pupils receive better grades

(Dunkake, Kiechle, Klein, & Rosar, 2012) and are more likely

to obtain a college degree (Gordon, Crosnoe, & Wang, 2013).

Attractive persons have a better chance to get a callback when

applying for a job (López Bóo, Rossi, & Urzúa, 2013), receive

higher salaries (Hamermesh & Biddle, 1994), and do not have

to deliver the same performance as their unattractive counter-

parts in sports (e.g., in soccer, see Hagenah, Rosar, & Klein,

2010). Still, although beauty often pays, it can also have neg-

ative effects. For example, Johnson, Podratz, Dipboye, and

Gibbons (2010) show that attractiveness1 is detrimental for

women applying for masculine sex-typed jobs in which

appearance is of minor importance (e.g., prison warden). This

interaction effect between gender and attractiveness has been

termed the “beauty is beastly” effect. It has been found to be

particularly significant in high-level, managerial positions

since in these jobs “male” characteristics are often regarded

as important. Attractiveness of a woman is instead associated

with femininity giving rise to preconceptions about her suit-

ability for these kinds of jobs (Heilman & Saruwatari, 1979).

In politics, several studies confirm the effects of physical

attractiveness on the likelihood of being elected. Already in

the mid-1970s, Efrain & Patterson (1974) found a significant

correlation between beauty ratings of candidates and their

vote share in Canadian federal elections. Subsequent studies

added several controls (e.g., incumbency status) and con-

firmed a general effect of beauty both in political systems as

diverse as Australia, Finland, Brazil, Mexico, Switzerland,

875710APRXXX10.1177/1532673X19875710American Politics ResearchJäckle et al.

research-article2019

1Albert-Ludwigs-Universitat Freiburg, Germany

2Technische Universitat Kaiserslautern, Germany

Corresponding Author:

Sebastian Jäckle, Seminar fur Wissenschaftliche Politik, Albert-Ludwigs-

Universitat Freiburg, Werthmannstr 12, 79098 Freiburg, Germany.

Email: sebastian.jaeckle@politik.uni-freiburg.de

A Catwalk to Congress? Appearance-

Based Effects in the Elections to the

U.S. House of Representatives 2016

Sebastian Jäckle1, Thomas Metz1, Georg Wenzelburger2,

and Pascal D. König2

Abstract

This article addresses the question of appearance-based effects by looking at the U.S. House of Representatives election

2016. We broaden the focus beyond existing studies by offering a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the three

traits attractiveness, competence, and likability while simultaneously taking into account confounding third variables and

possible interactions. Corresponding to the comparative character of electoral competition in the districts, we developed

a relative measure of the three traits which we apply in an online survey. This measure also takes into account the raters’

latency times, that is, their clicking speed, as a weighting factor for their ambiguity in the ratings. With these data we

test whether appearance matters for the electoral outcome. We find that attractiveness positively affects the vote share,

whereas perceived likability and competence play no role. The study also tests to what extent the found appearance effects

are conditioned by incumbency status, age, and gender of the contestants. Furthermore, it gives hints which aspects of their

appearance candidates could change to perform better at the ballot box.

Keywords

candidate appearance, voter decision, face-based inference, beauty premium, facial competence, likability