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GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was criticized for $150,000 spent on her wardrobe, hair and makeup.Women running for top offices need to appear competent and attractive, according to a new study. For male candidates, seeming competent may be enough.
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Women running for top offices need to appear competent and attractive, according to a new study. For male candidates, seeming competent may be enough.
Scientists have discovered the "Beauty Bounce" does exist and that for female candidates having a pretty face really does win votes from both men and women.
The research suggests that the much-vaunted ￡100,000 spent on Sarah Palin, the vice presidential hopeful's wardrobe and the high salary of her make-up artist really is money well spent.
The study by Northwestern University in Chicago found that while the perception of competence was the biggest vote winner, for women at least beauty could give them an extra boost - especially among men.
"Even female voters seemed to tap into the cultural expectation that women who are attractive as well as competent are more worthy of high status roles," said Joan Chiao, assistant professor of psychology at the university..
The team of researchers asked 73 people (35 male and 38 female) to look at the faces of 106 relatively unknown congressional candidates from the 2006 House of Representatives election.
They were asked to rate them on a number of factors including competence, attractiveness and approachability on a scale of one to seven, from 'not at all' to 'very much'.
They were then later asked if they would vote for the same candidates for president.
Overall, voters perceived the faces of male politicians as more competent and dominant relative to female politicians; female politicians were perceived as more attractive and approachable relative to males.
Candidates who were perceived as more attractive by men were more likely to win votes in the actual Congressional election, Prof Chiao noted.
The research, published in the Public Library of Science One journal, found that attractiveness was not a factor for male candidates.
For men voting for male candidates it was all about competence whereas for women it was a mixture of competence and approachability.
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(Agencies)
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一項最新研究顯示，競選社會要職的女性既要顯得能力不凡，又要具備一定的吸引力。而對于男性競選者來說，只要看上去能干就足夠了。
科學家發現選舉中的“美貌效應”不容忽視，即漂亮的女候選人往往能贏得更多的選民——無論是男性選民還是女性選民。
由此看來，共和黨副總統候選人莎拉?佩林“斥資”10萬英鎊購置名牌服飾和高薪聘用時尚顧問還是很值得的。
這項由芝加哥西北大學開展的研究發現，盡管候選人的能力是贏得競選的最大砝碼，但對于女候選人來說，美貌則能為她們贏得不少額外加分——尤其是男性選民。
該大學的心理學助理教授Joan Chiao說：“甚至女性選民也有這種文化期待，即既有魅力又能干的女性應該擔任社會要職。”
研究人員向73名研究對象（35名男性和38名女性）展示了2006年參加眾議院選舉的106位候選人的照片，這些候選人都不太為人們所熟知。
研究人員讓研究對象根據能力、吸引力和可接近度等一系列因素對這些候選人進行評分，分值范圍為1至7分，代表“一點不好”到“非常好”幾個等級。
之后，研究對象要決定是否會選舉這些人為總統。
總體來看，男候選人在能力與控制力方面的得分高于女候選人，而女候選人在吸引力和可接近度方面則強于男候選人。
Chiao教授指出，在男性看來具有吸引力的候選人在當年的議會選舉中得到的選票也較多。
該項在《公共科學圖書館-綜合》上公布的研究發現，吸引力對于男候選人來說不那么重要。
對于男性選民來說，“能力”是他們在選舉男候選人時所考慮的最主要因素，而對于女候選人而言，除了能力之外，是否容易接近也十分重要。
（英語點津 姍姍 編輯）
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