Beauty key to Justin Trudeau's success
By Mike Strobel, Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 04:37 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 04:59 PM EST
Finally, a scientific explanation for Justin Trudeau’s high approval ratings.
We’re blinded by beauty.
If Justin looked like Rob Ford and me, he’d still be a snowboard instructor at Whistler. Instead, he’s prime minister of Canada, and basks in approval ratings as high as 61%.
Lucky for him, British researchers say we are drawn to good-looking people. We see them as more intelligent.
An “attractiveness halo,” a sort of hot-meter skews our view, despite decades of effort by feminists, equalists, antisexists, homogenists and homely people.
Political correctness is no match for Charles Darwin.
When I described last year’s defection of Tory MP Eve Adams to Trudeau’s Liberals as a “convergence of pretty people,” the effete elite got their knickers in a knot. Sexist pig, etc, etc, etc. But you can’t deny millennia of human conditioning.
The University of St. Andrews study was reported Tuesday in the Telegraph. Scholars tested responses to 100 portrait photos. The more “attractive” the subject, the smarter they were perceived to be.
“Despite the old adage not to ‘judge a book by its cover,’ facial cues often guide first impressions and ... guide our decisions,” the report concludes.
“Facial impressions have consistently been shown to influence our opinions as well as bias decisions in politics, leadership, law, parental expectations and punishments on children, military rank promotion and teacher evaluations.”
Researchers did not delve deeper into politics. But you don’t have to be a knockout to see the “attractiveness halo” is more likely to afflict lefties.
Look at their history, their heroes: The Kennedys, Pierre Trudeau, John Kerry, Michael Ignatieff, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton ...
Hollywood, capital city of the liberatti, provides their politicians a pretty-boy backdrop, such as Oscar winner and chinook alarmist Leonardo DiCaprio.
The right wing gets the likes of Stephen Harper and Donald Trump. Competent fellows, maybe, but hardly George Clooneys.
We libertarians have Clint Eastwood and Canadian national party leader Tim Moen, a firefighter calendar boy, but the hotness has so far not translated into votes.
Shallow? Even for politics? Not at all. It’s the law of natural selection. Darwin.
Beautiful people, the science says, are healthier and wealthier than the rest of us, and are treated better. They are more liked and marry other beautiful people. They get more Oscars.
It’s why we spend $200 billion a year globally trying to look like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie.
The lucky ones, like our decorative prime minister, don’t need much work.
But the study also warns of the “misleading effect of attractiveness on the accuracy of first impressions of competence.”
“These results suggest that we are ‘blinded by beauty.’”
It’s true. Think about it. With whom would you rather have a beer or a date? David Beckham or Paul Giamatti? Exactly. But have you ever heard Beckham speak? Giamatti went to Yale.
In other words, it’s unlikely Justin’s latest approval ratings would range from 53% to a heady 61% if he were short, fat and bald.
More likely, he’d be a senator.
Strobel’s column usually runs Monday to Thursday. Hear him at 94.9 The Rock FM Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
mstrobel@postmedia.com
Beauty key to Justin Trudeau's success | Strobel | Canada | News | Toronto Sun
By Mike Strobel, Toronto Sun
First posted: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 04:37 PM EST | Updated: Tuesday, March 01, 2016 04:59 PM EST
Finally, a scientific explanation for Justin Trudeau’s high approval ratings.
We’re blinded by beauty.
If Justin looked like Rob Ford and me, he’d still be a snowboard instructor at Whistler. Instead, he’s prime minister of Canada, and basks in approval ratings as high as 61%.
Lucky for him, British researchers say we are drawn to good-looking people. We see them as more intelligent.
An “attractiveness halo,” a sort of hot-meter skews our view, despite decades of effort by feminists, equalists, antisexists, homogenists and homely people.
Political correctness is no match for Charles Darwin.
When I described last year’s defection of Tory MP Eve Adams to Trudeau’s Liberals as a “convergence of pretty people,” the effete elite got their knickers in a knot. Sexist pig, etc, etc, etc. But you can’t deny millennia of human conditioning.
The University of St. Andrews study was reported Tuesday in the Telegraph. Scholars tested responses to 100 portrait photos. The more “attractive” the subject, the smarter they were perceived to be.
“Despite the old adage not to ‘judge a book by its cover,’ facial cues often guide first impressions and ... guide our decisions,” the report concludes.
“Facial impressions have consistently been shown to influence our opinions as well as bias decisions in politics, leadership, law, parental expectations and punishments on children, military rank promotion and teacher evaluations.”
Researchers did not delve deeper into politics. But you don’t have to be a knockout to see the “attractiveness halo” is more likely to afflict lefties.
Look at their history, their heroes: The Kennedys, Pierre Trudeau, John Kerry, Michael Ignatieff, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton ...
Hollywood, capital city of the liberatti, provides their politicians a pretty-boy backdrop, such as Oscar winner and chinook alarmist Leonardo DiCaprio.
The right wing gets the likes of Stephen Harper and Donald Trump. Competent fellows, maybe, but hardly George Clooneys.
We libertarians have Clint Eastwood and Canadian national party leader Tim Moen, a firefighter calendar boy, but the hotness has so far not translated into votes.
Shallow? Even for politics? Not at all. It’s the law of natural selection. Darwin.
Beautiful people, the science says, are healthier and wealthier than the rest of us, and are treated better. They are more liked and marry other beautiful people. They get more Oscars.
It’s why we spend $200 billion a year globally trying to look like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie.
The lucky ones, like our decorative prime minister, don’t need much work.
But the study also warns of the “misleading effect of attractiveness on the accuracy of first impressions of competence.”
“These results suggest that we are ‘blinded by beauty.’”
It’s true. Think about it. With whom would you rather have a beer or a date? David Beckham or Paul Giamatti? Exactly. But have you ever heard Beckham speak? Giamatti went to Yale.
In other words, it’s unlikely Justin’s latest approval ratings would range from 53% to a heady 61% if he were short, fat and bald.
More likely, he’d be a senator.
Strobel’s column usually runs Monday to Thursday. Hear him at 94.9 The Rock FM Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
mstrobel@postmedia.com
Beauty key to Justin Trudeau's success | Strobel | Canada | News | Toronto Sun
