Conservatives are more attractive than liberals

madoka

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2004
4,344
712
121
I always suspected the bitter liberals in here were uggos. :laughing:

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/conservatives-liberals-trump/512987/

Conservative politicians are better looking than liberal politicians on average in the United States, Europe, and Australia—and that might create an overall advantage for conservative parties, according to a study published in the February issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Public Economics.

The study goes on to suggest that the more attractive a politician is, the more likely voters across the political spectrum are to assume he or she is conservative, while the less attractive a politician is, the more likely voters are to assume he or she is liberal.

Prior research indicates that good-looking political candidates win more votes, just one of the many ways attractive individuals seem to have it better in life. There is evidence to suggest that beautiful people are viewed by others as more likable, trustworthy and competent, and may be more likely to land job interviews and earn more money than less attractive people to name just a few advantages.

. . .

A simple economic explanation of the appearance gap in favor of the right is that beautiful people earn more money, and the more people earn, the more they are inclined to oppose redistribution and, arguably, to support, get active in, and represent parties to the right. A more general psychological explanation could be that good-looking people are more likely to perceive the world as a just place, since they are treated better than others, and are happier, and a frequent reason for people to sympathize with the left is a perception of the world as unfair.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
73,582
35,316
136
Obama%20Trump

trump-obama.jpg
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
88,238
55,791
136
I seriously find it so funny that he's still mad about someone making fun of his tiny hands thirty years later. What a psycho.
 

compuwiz1

Admin Emeritus Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
27,112
930
126
I understand that liberal women are easier to get into the sack. Might not be as perty, but easier... :D
 

FIVR

Diamond Member
Jun 1, 2016
3,753
911
106
Newborn infants are known to have a preference for attractive faces when responding to baby talk. I wonder if it's the same process with conservatives; They are so unencumbered by any higher executive functions that their pure id shines through in every decision they make.
 

Muse

Lifer
Jul 11, 2001
41,261
10,426
136
Liberals are not bitter. Liberals (true liberals) are liberated. Conservatives are baffled, selfish, heartless egotists. Of course, the liberals are 20x more attractive.
 

Blue_Max

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2011
4,223
153
106
Superficiality confirmed.

But, hey, the Sarah was such a hot number, huh? A real MILF.

Which Sarah would that be? Or are you doxxing me?

One doesn't have to be "superficial" to find most of your loudest members not only unattractive, but repulsive. Screw your "fat acceptance" movement.
49e.gif
 

Jhhnn

IN MEMORIAM
Nov 11, 1999
62,365
14,686
136
Which Sarah would that be? Or are you doxxing me?

One doesn't have to be "superficial" to find most of your loudest members not only unattractive, but repulsive. Screw your "fat acceptance" movement.
49e.gif

With double down. How predictable.
 

bbhaag

Diamond Member
Jul 2, 2011
7,507
3,156
146
Liberals tend to look for capability in their politicians first. Conservatives go with what looks good.

Form over function if you will.
The capability of the liberals in my state must be different than in yours. Mike Madigan and his colleagues are neither form or function. My state continues too bleed but liberals decided his failed leadership is good enough.
 

HamburgerBoy

Lifer
Apr 12, 2004
27,111
318
126
I skimmed through the paper really quick, so maybe these were addressed and I missed them, and I usually don't bother with the super nitty-gritty statistics stuff cuz a lot of it I've never learned, but...

1. There's that famous OKCupid study/survey which shows men's view of beauty roughly follows an ordinary bell-curve, whereas women are much more critical of physical appearance. As we know, women are left-skewed pretty much anywhere in the world. How do we differentiate between Republicans voting for someone because they're beautiful vs Democrats not voting for someone because they're ugly?
2. I didn't see mention of race. It's well-known that whites are often considered more attractive than minorities in America, and advertising agencies and other things regularly make use of this. We also know that the Republican party is hella white. Something that should have been considered in the study.
3. Politics are generational, and recent seats have been disproportionately captured by Republicans. While the study makes some mention of grouping by age, it's not said how precisely they did it, just that they tried pairing people of "similar" age. There's a big blue bubble for members of Congress in their 60s, and the youngest ones are disproportionately red.

Actually, I bet it's #2. The words 'white', 'ethnic', 'Caucasian' appear nowhere and everything about 'race' is about political races, so they've completely neglected that.

In the first two experiments, subjects were shown photographs of either MEPs or U.S. candidates and were asked to indicate on a scale from 1 to 10 where they expected each politician to be located on a left–right scale ranging from 1 (farthest to the left) to 10 (farthest to the right).12 Subjects correctly placed MEPs representing party blocs that we classify as left to the left of MEPs representing party blocs that we classify as right (using the same classification as in Section 2).13 The average score on the 1–10 scale was 5.64 and 5.98 for MEPs representing the left and the right party bloc, respectively (p-value of difference = 0.0000; one-sided t-test). 14 For U.S. candidates, the average score was 5.47 and 5.66 for Democrats and Republicans, respectively (p-value of difference = 0.0088; one-sided t-test).

Like come on, take a group of white people and a group of non-white people, anyone with knowledge of American politics is going to be able to guess which one is going to be overall a bit more Republican/conservative.

EDIT: Quick correction, apparently they're defining 'US candidates' as candidates for the US Senate and governors, but I don't think that changes too much.
 

Blue_Max

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2011
4,223
153
106
Liberals tend to look for capability in their politicians first. Conservatives go with what looks good.

You have GOT to be kidding me. I've noticed quite the opposite, which is why we're stuck with this lunatic running Canada. "So haaaandsome! His hair! I'm in love!" ...then he runs the country into the ground with a $Trillion+ debt and mass islamic immigration.

Justin-Trudeau-heart_640x345_acf_cropped.jpg