PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AND LEADERSHIP SELECTION

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Although the effects of physical appearance on social perceptions and expectations have been widely studied in psychology and found to influence career promotions and selection to high leadership roles, no previous research has systematically explored the influence of physical appearance upon the appraisal of actual politicians for leadership office. One objective of this study is to examine the contribution of assessments of healthiness, maturity, dominance and attractiveness to ratings of candidate electoral viability, as well as the facial morphology and physical features underlying ratings. A second objective is to explore whether appearance and speech style affect candidate appraisal when the effects of political agreement are considered -- under what conditions may appearance effects be mitigated. These questions are examined with respect to male and female candidates and minority group candidates as well. A third objective is to analyze differences between male and female subjects in their use of nonverbal and verbal information in candidate appraisal. A cross cultural experimental research design will be used to test hypotheses. Each experiment will be conducted in the United States and in Romania to analyze cultural effects. Video based stimulus material will be taken from C-Span broadcasts of floor speeches in the U.S. House of Representatives and subjects will be exposed to still frame and video clips of 20 male and 20 female politicians. A variation of the experiment studying actual candidates in the 2000 presidential primaries will also be conducted to assess external validity.