In a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois, we had already been given clues about How the face could reveal political orientation: specifically, the ugliest people They tend to be progressive, the most beautiful, conservative.
Now a study that has just been published goes further and, thanks to an algorithm, achieves a degree of precision when it comes to guessing whether the person is conservative or liberal that even surpasses that of long questionnaires.
facial recognition
Depending on our ideology, we will lean slightly more towards more group empathy (taking care of our own) and less general (caring as a symbol, even if that means taking less care of our own). Both positions have their pros and cons..
What seems to contradict our intuition is that these political trends have a reflection in our face (which forces us to ask ourselves what came first, the chicken or the egg: we vote like this because we have a certain face or we get a certain face because we vote like that.
The degree of success of this algorithm, be that as it may, It's from 72 %.
In the study, a facial recognition algorithm was used on images of 1,085,795 people to predict their political orientation by comparing their similarity to the faces of other liberals and conservatives. Political orientation was correctly classified on the 72%, and accuracy was similar across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and across diverse settings (Facebook and dating websites).
The greatest predictive power was provided head orientation (58%), followed by emotional expression (57%). Liberals tended to look at the camera more directly, were more likely to express surprise, and less likely to express disgust. Facial hair and glasses predicted political orientation with minimal accuracy (51-52%).
In future studies, a more detailed analysis could be obtained by exploring the links between political orientation and facial features extracted from images taken in a standardized environment while monitoring facial hair, grooming, facial expression and head orientation.
If you want to know more about this study and its implications, I explain it to you in the following video:
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The news
This new algorithm guesses if you are conservative or liberal with an accuracy of 72 %
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.