People who identify as more attractive are more likely to also identify as conservative. On the contrary, those who are perceived as less attractive tend to be on the other side of the political spectrum.
This is at least what the next study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois.
Reasons
In the study cited, measures of attractiveness were used through multiple surveys, and The relationship between attractiveness and political beliefs was examined. Controlling for socioeconomic status, more attractive individuals were found to be more likely to report higher levels of political efficacy, identify as conservative, and identify as Republican.
These findings suggest an additional mechanism for political socialization that has further implications for understanding how the body is intertwined with the social nature of politics.
Naturally, we are facing a correlation, and also in the face of self-perceived issues such as physical beauty or political orientation. However, we can launch some hypotheses that someone who is more attractive tends to be more conservative or Republican and someone who is less attractive tends to be more progressive or Democrat. For example, if you are physically more attractive you also have more self-confidence. More confidence means more self-sufficiency and more desire to follow the people in power.
Previous research shows that good-looking people are generally treated better, They achieve a higher social status and earn more money, which influences them to perceive the world as a fairer place than the ugly ones.. Social psychologists refer to this as the halo effect, or when positive traits influence a person's overall opinion of a person.
This blind spot prevents attractive people from seeing the need for government intervention, a central element of left-wing politics. According to one of the authors of the study, Peterson:
The best way to describe our results is that, if you take two individuals who share similar characteristics such as age, income, and education, but who differ in attractiveness, our results show that higher attractiveness correlates with being more effective and more conservative than the similar individual who is less attractive. This is not deterministic; all attractive people are not conservative and all unattractive people are not liberal.
Peterson and Palmer took data from the 1972, 1974, and 1976 American National Studies surveys that asked people to evaluate the appearance of others. These results were compared to the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study which focused on the physical characteristics of more than 10,000 high school students who were rated by others on their level of attractiveness. Given the greater social influence of attractive people, Peterson has noted that his findings could have deeper implications. Better-looking people 'may have political influence over others in their social networks, regardless of their actual levels of effective political knowledge.'
The opposite, Peterson said, is that 'those who are not blessed with good looks will be less likely to feel empowered, to participate in politics, to seek redress for grievances, or to exercise their political rights.'
If conservatives are more attractive than their liberal or left-wing opponents, Right-wing parties may end up with an advantage at election time.
Recent research suggests that conservative-leaning candidates in the United States and Europe are, in fact, objectively more physically attractive on average than their left-wing counterparts, which under some conditions leads to an electoral advantage.
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The news
The ugliest people tend to be progressive, the most beautiful people tend to be conservative.
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.