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PERCEPTION POLITICS:

A BELGIAN CASE STUDY

Philippe De Vries - Christ’l De Landtsheer

Paper presented at the 20th IPSA world congress

Fukuoka, Japan

9 – 13 July 2006

[email protected]

University of Antwerp

Sint-Jacobstraat 2

2000 Antwerpen

Belgium

[email protected]

University of Antwerp

Sint-Jacobstraat 2

2000 Antwerpen

Belgium

http://www.ua.ac.be/politiekecommunicatie

Philippe De Vries – Christ’l De Landtsheer: PERCEPTION POLITICS

PERCEPTION POLITICS:

A BELGIAN CASE STUDY

Philippe De Vries - Christ’l De Landtsheer

ABSTRACT

Politically relevant images can be projected by a candidate’s physical appearance and

personality. The manipulation of political impressions, as a consequence, can be

exerted as a political-marketing tool. In this experiment, the physical appearances of

fifteen council members of an average Belgian city are manipulated in a politically

favorable way. Mock elections retrieved voter preferences concerning the appearance

of the original and the adjusted politicians. The results - on the contents of a favorable

image - are in support of an analogy between Europe and the United States.

Politicians gained significantly more votes with an appearance that was manipulated

in a similar, particular way.

political impressions – images – political marketing – physical appearance –

Belgium – perception politics

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INTRODUCTION

As early as the sixteenth century Machiavelli drew the attention to the importance of

impressions and perceptions by emphasizing that prominent political figures don’t

necessary need to posses all good governing qualities but they should certainly appear

to have them (Bandonella, 2005). Different scientific disciplines have - over the past

century - underlined the importance of nonverbal communication. Nonverbal aspects

of political messages consist of striking and relevant political cues. Furthermore these

nonverbal aspects influence short-term impressions and evaluations as well as more

lasting political attitudes (Masters & Sullivan, 1993; Bucy & Bradley, 2004). There

has been a substantive amount of research both from psychology and political science

on the relation between political suitability and the personal characteristics of the

politician. Many political scientists, however, consider personal characteristics and

physical appearance of less than secondary interest and importance, and it is often

refused to accept that other aspects of political communication aside from the political

message deserve serious consideration.

Traditional political science is not eager to recognize the influences of political

personality and the physical characteristics on the perception of political suitability.

Social and political psychologists nevertheless, have discovered and proven several

interesting interactions. Social psychology has for a long period been captured by

cognition, paying little to no attention to affect and emotion. Abelson, Kinder and

Peters (1982) introduced the research on the political person perception and retrieved

groundbreaking conclusions by emphasizing that affective evaluations are highly

predictive of the overall evaluation of political candidates. Their findings clearly

indicate the role played by emotions and gut reactions in politics. Marcus (2003)

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conducted prominent research on the interaction between voter behavior and emotion

stating emotions are used by voters as a tool for efficient information processing. In a

multi party system - with coalition governments - voting in a rational way is a time-

consuming and labor-intensive assignment. Voters, therefore, rely on other modes of

decision-making which include personality, emotions and gut reactions. All these

different aspects influence the coming about of individual political preferences, even

though they are predominantly considered irrational and a menace to the democratic

ideal. There is much to say for a democracy based on rational choice decision-making

by all voters. Unfortunately, as this study will confirm, this ideal has been proven

utopian and unrealistic since ages.

THE POLITICAL SUITABLE IMAGE

Many scientists have - over the last decades - showed a peculiar interest in this

intriguing domain of research. Especially social psychologists (Alderlich, Gronke &

Grynaviski, 1999) have, since the evolution towards candidate centered elections,

started to reconsider how voters assess political candidates and establish preferences.

Zajonc (1980) who proclaimed that two independent systems of political evaluation

occur, herewith introduced a thesis that was considered controversially. A first

evaluation system is fast, crude and perhaps even predominant. The second system, in

contrast, is believed to be slower, more detailed and above all cognitive. No

convincing arguments, nonetheless, need to be put forward to demonstrate that

politics is as much about feelings as it is about thinking. Voters possess a wide variety

of information about political candidates. This information ranges from issue

positioning, visual image, personality, previous mistakes or victories to office

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experience. These crumbs of information construe a general, and in the eyes of the

voter true, image about the political candidate. Some of this gathered information,

possibly, triggers a more profound and cognitive information processing. Other

information, that includes physical appearance and political personality, initiates

strong emotional or affective reactions. The question that subsequently surfaces is

how these types of information processing relate to each other. Does the cognitive

information out rule or overrule the more emotional and affective or is it the other

way around? Research by Redlawsk and Lau (2003) indicates that, generally, the

cognitive outweighs the affective, even though the opposite result occurred as well.

They recall, as an example, the competence and woodenness of Al Gore in contrast to

the less competent but warm and approachable George W. Bush.

People ascribe and associate certain personality characteristics to others merely by

judging them on certain physical features (De Landtsheer, 2004). Even though most

children are taught not to judge a book by its cover, the power of the physical

appearance cues overrules the believed proper behavior. People being baby-faced,

overweight, unattractive or short are perceived more negatively on a number of

characteristics. Furthermore these unattractive individuals are labeled as less socially

skilled, less healthy and even less intelligent as their more favored peers (Eagly,

Ashmore, Makhijani & Longo, 1991; Keating, Randall, & Kendrick, 1999;

Andreoletti, Zebrowitz & Lachman, 2001). Overweight individuals tend to be seen as

lazy, slow and unintelligent (Crandall, 1994). Shorter individuals on the other hand

are perceived as lower in professional status and less competent, both in social and

cognitive domains (Jackson, 1992; Giessner, 2005).

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With research in business communication we are now moving from the general

domain of affective information processing to more specific research on the

perception of political suitability. Several studies in this business area revealed

conclusions that might be transposed to politics. Johnson (1987) discovered, in a

study on physical attractiveness, dress and job type, a consistent influence of dress

style on interviewer perceptions. Riggio (1988) concluded his research by stating that

appropriate dress has a stronger influence on perceptual evaluations than physical

attractiveness whilst Forsythe (1990) revealed that female candidates with a more

masculine dress style, blazers, short belted jackets or tailored suits are perceived as

more forceful, aggressive and more likely to be hired. Nonetheless Riggio concluded

his research referring that attractive but inappropriately dressed candidates have a

greater chance to be hired than unattractive appropriately dressed ones (Ilkka, 1995).

These conclusions seem to refute the ‘what is beautiful is good stereotype’ established

by Dion (1972) who suggested that this stereotype is a strong and general

phenomenon, confirmed by several other studies but overthrown by a maybe even

greater number of studies (Eagly et al, 1991). On the other hand findings by Hatfield

once more tend to show that hairstyle and appropriate dress code are of greater

importance for women seeking management positions than their physical

attractiveness (Prodratz & Dipboye, 2002) which may again apply to the world of

politics. Returning to the field of political communication Sigelman was very clear in

his conclusions, stating that physical attractiveness does not affect the political image.

He found no significant direct relationship between attractiveness and people’s votes

when studying the effect of physical attractiveness on voters’ preferences (Sigelman,

Sigelman & Fowler, 1987).

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There seems to be some disagreement in the scientific world about the influence and

importance of physical appearance. It is clear, however, that political support or

preference depends, at least in part, on citizen’s emotional responses after seeing or

hearing political candidates. Viewers, in forming or modifying more generalized

attitudes of support, integrate their immediate impressions and emotions with other

sources of information These emotional reactions, particularly if reinforced, can

become part of more enduring dispositions towards candidates or programs (Sullivan

& Masters, 1988). These rapid automatic inferences from the facial appearance of

political candidates influence the processing of subsequent information about these

candidates (Todorov, Mandisodza, Goren & Hall; 2005).

POLITICAL MARKETING

Considering the research discussed above one may conclude that politically relevant

images can be projected by a candidate's physical appearance. Politicians and their

entourage are very much aware of the power of the visual presentation. These

adjustable and changeable political relevant characteristics are not the least important

for political marketers. The attention for self-monitoring and strategic-self-

presentation therefore clearly is not excessive (Eagly, et al 1991). We are all to near to

the situation where the winner of an election can be predicted based on voter

responses to a candidate’s appearance. This finding has important implications for

social decision-making, the democratic process and political marketing (Newman,

1999; Zebrowitz & Montepare, 2005).

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Newman (1999) draws the attention to the marketing strategies that drive the political

system. These strategies emphasize image over substance, personality over issues and

sound bites over dialogue. Political news coverage is treated like entertainment; it has

to be sharp, quick and amusing. It is broadly assumed that especially television has

transformed the electoral process in both the US (Ranney, 1983) and Europe (Blumer,

Cayrol & Thovenon; 1978). Defeated candidates almost literally ‘lose face’ in the

print media, winners are more likely to be shown happy and smiling (Masters, 1981;

Sulllivan & Masters, 2005). Distinguishing reality from fiction is becoming

increasingly difficult for citizens. Politics is waged in the media, with in the center of

it all the mechanisms that manufacture the images. In politics an image is created

through the use of visual impressions that are mostly communicated by the

candidate’s physical appearance, media appearance and experiences. These images

are integrated into the minds of citizens and they determine their candidate preference

(Newman, 1999). The power of these political messages has long time be

underestimated and even neglected.

PERCEPTION POLITICS

As Newman (1999) puts forward the modernization of politics that unfolded during

the last decades must be understood as a trend towards commercialization,

globalization, and visual culture. In this process mass media and television in

particular, play a prominent role (Holz-Bacha and Norris, 2001; Esser, 1999; Grabe,

Zhou and Barnett, 2001; Leroy and Siune, 1994). As a result of this modernization of

politics, a new dynamic in political communication can be distinguished. This trend,

in which dramatization of politics takes place according to the rules of media logic, is

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referred to as perception politics. Information, politics and entertainment became

intertwined and evolved to infotainment and politainment where politicians obey to

the fast and crude rules of the media and turn politics into perception politics. Style

has become increasingly import to the expense of content which subsequently brings

us to the domain of political impression management. Recognizing the importance of

personality, physical appearance and other style elements the wangling and handling

of the impression is vital (McGraw, 2003; De Landtsheer, 2004; De Vries, De

Landtsheer & Vertessen, 2005).

EXPERIMENT

This experiment concentrates on the power and influence of the physical appearance

in politics. The greater part of research on this topic has been conducted in the United

States of America (Rosenberg, Bohan, McCafferty & Harris, 1986; Rosenberg &

McCafferty, 1987; Rosenberg & Kahn, 1987; Rosenberg, Kahn, Tran & Le, 1991). De

Landtsheer (2004) transposed and applied the results of this research to The

Netherlands and was able to retrieve similar results concerning the determinants of the

political suitable appearance. Keeping in mind that the United States of America is a

presidency whilst The Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy these similarities

were not evident. Elections in the United States of America result in a highly

mediatized race between a republican and a democratic candidate whereas the

political system in The Netherlands consists of several political parties represented by

several candidates, meaning two extremely different political systems. The Belgian

political system is highly comparable to the Dutch one and would enable us to draw

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valid and verified conclusion concerning the European and American ideal political

physical appearance.

The main objective of this research is not to hand politicians and marketers the

necessary tools to create the ultimate political appearance, but to create an awareness

and interest for the strategies used to present politicians. This clarification should on

the other hand not be understood as an attempt to rebut the importance of research

vis-à-vis the role of physical appearance and personality in politics for this research

will indicate important questions need to be answered.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Three presuppositions are enunciated. Firstly this experiment is designed to retrieve if

the results found in the United States of America and The Netherlands can be

reproduced in Belgium. We anticipate recovering similar results as established in

previous studies which indicated that a political preferable appearance leads to higher

election chances (Roseberg, 1986 & 1991; De Landtsheer, 2004). If this hypothesis

can be confirmed a cross cultural preferable political appearance can be put forward

for the United States of America and Europe. Secondly the experiment will try to

unveil the interplay between political party slogan and the candidate image displayed.

Although previous research showed no significant influence of the political slogan we

hope to conclude otherwise (De Landtsheer, 2004). The third and last research

question articulated tries to uncover the interaction between the respondents’

demographic data - more specific gender, age, education and political affiliation - and

the preferred political appearance.

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METHOD

In order to retrieve the power of physical appearance in Belgian politics, a mock

election was designed. Fifteen politicians from the City Council of Mortsel (an

average Belgian city with approximately 25,000 inhabitants) participated in the

experiment to create a realistic political campaign. The appearance of these politicians

was adjusted by stylists, hairdressers and make-up artists based on previous research

by De Landtsheer (2004) and inspired by Rosenberg (1986, 1987a, 1987b 1991). De

Landtsheer established a checklist of political suitable characteristics for male and

female politicians deduced from data delivered by both Belgian and Dutch

respondents. The results retrieved in these countries were almost identical with the

exception of facial hair. Dutch voters prefer their male politicians without moustache

and or beard, whereas this aspect of physical representation was of no importance to

Belgian voters. Male politicians should be over 35-40 years old and have a high

forehead, dark or grey hair, combed in parts. Blond and thick hair, uncombed or

sloppy hair is disadvantageously. Furthermore males should wear a classic dark suit

with white or pale blue shirt and colored tie. Sweaters, bright colors, white or Scottish

jackets are unfavorable. Female politicians are preferably over 40-45 years old. They

should have dark or grey hair and classic hair fashion, with short or medium length

hair. Blond loose hair is unfavorable. Formal dress is the most appropriate, classic

blouse and jacket in contrasting colors are the best. Bright colors, only dark colors,

showy patterns and naked arms are unfavorable (De Landtsheer, 2004).

Participants

Five hundred respondents took part in the experiment. Two hundred and thirty five of

them are female and two hundred and sixty five of them are male. Furthermore the

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respondents were selected along different levels of education and age. Considering

that there are ten different sets in which each politician appears with the original or

adjusted appearance, every picture could be selected by two hundred and fifty

respondents as is explained below.

Stimulus material

Ten out of the fifteen participating City council members were selected for the data

collection. These ten politicians belonged to the five major Flemish political parties,

CD&V or the christian democratic party, VLD or the conservative liberal party, SP.a

or the social democratic party, Groen! or the green party and Vlaams Belang or the

extreme right party. For each political party one male and one female politician was

incorporated in the experiment (appendix 1 contains the original and the adjusted

pictures of each politician together with the political party he or she belongs to).

All politicians were photographed twice. Once as they would present themselves to

their voters - which is referred to as the original appearance - and once after their

physical appearance was manipulated - which is referred to as the adjusted appearance

- according to the research findings of De Landtsheer (2004) explained above. Both

pictures were divided over ten different sets of mock election-campaign-flyers. Each

set contained the same politicians, half the time with the adjusted, or political

favorable representation and half the time with the original appearance. Every picture

is accompanied by a political slogan from one of the five political parties the

politicians belong to. The photographs are divided between ten different sets so that

every politician, displayed in both the original and the adjusted appearance, is

represented with the slogan of each political party.

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Procedure

Each of the five hundred respondents is presented with ten campaign flyers, which all

include a picture accompanied by a slogan. After examining both the messages and

the images the respondents are asked to indicate five politicians by answering the

question for whom they would possibly vote, starting of with their first and second

choice all the way to their fifth choice. This means that every respondent disregards

five politicians.

RESULTS

The results of this experiment will be discussed by answering the three research

questions postulated above. Firstly the results concerning the impact of the adjusted

political physical appearance are discussed. Secondly the interplay between party

slogan and image is unveiled and thirdly the interaction between the respondents’

demographic information (age, gender, education and political affiliation) and their

preferred physical appearance for politicians is discussed.

The impact of the adjusted physical political appearance.

Table 1 shows the results from the mock elections regarding the scores for each of the

ten politicians both in their original and adjusted political appearance (the original and

adjusted pictures are included in appendix 1). Knowing respondents were presented

with ten campaign flyers of which five had to be chosen, each respondent disregarded

five politicians. Table 1 contains the results for each politician. The column ‘not

chosen’ represents the number of times that a particular politician was not chosen

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whilst the column ‘order’ simply indicates the ranking with 1 as the politician who

was most popular.

INSERT

Table 1: Scores for every politician in the original and adjusted political

appearance (2005 experiment with Belgian city council members).

The results above conclude that a politician presented with the adjusted political

appearance has an average 21,68% more possibility to be included among the

politicians perceived as most political suitable. Every politician, except subject 7

(Pooters), gains considerable and significant profit from adjusting his or her

appearance. In the case of subject 7 the pictures in appendix 1 show there is little

difference between the original and the adjusted appearance. We believe this to be the

explanation for her disappointing results.

The manipulation of subject 3 (De Ridder) on the other hand led to the highest

increase of voter preference. Portrayed with her original appearance only seventy

three respondents out of two hundred and fifty considered her among the most

political suitable candidates, whilst her figures rose to one hundred and seventy seven

with the manipulated political appearance (+38,4%). Also subject 8 (Van Campfort)

was able to boost her score from only nineteen voters to one hundred and thirteen

(+37,6%). Most popular politician is without a doubt subject 4 (Dupon). Presented

with the manipulated appearance more than 85% of respondents chose him among the

most political suitable candidates.

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INSERT

Table 2: Ranking of the top-five male and female politicians with original and

adjusted political appearance (2005 experiment with Belgian city council members).

Table 2 shows that 67,7% of the male politicians and 66% of the female politicians

indicated as most political suitable are presented with the adjusted appearance,

whereas just 32,3% of male politicians and 34% of female politicians retrieved in the

first choice category are portrayed with their original appearance. The same trend is

observable for each category although the strength of the effect diminishes and is

almost neglectable for the fifth choice.

Another remarkable finding which is not retrievable in the table above concerns the

segmentation of first, second, third, fourth and fifth choices. When we take a look at

the division between the different choices one can observe that a politician presented

with his or her original image has a 23% chance to end up in the category fifth choice

whereas just 17% is assigned to the category first choice. For the politicians with the

adjusted political appearance the exact opposite is observable, meaning that pictures

with adjusted appearance have a 22,4% chance to be found in the category first choice

and 17,9% in the category fifth choice. In other words the exact opposite partition is

retrieved.

INSERT

Table 3: mean value, median and mode value (2005 experiment with Belgian city

council members).

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In table 3 the represented values range between one and five where one stands for first

choice and five for fifth choice, meaning that the lower the value the better that

particular politician scored with that particular appearance. From table 3 can be

recovered that for each politician both the average, median as well as the mode moves

into the favorable direction when portrayed with the adjusted political appearance in

contrast to the original image. In other words each politician experiences a more

positive evaluation due to the appearance manipulation.

Considering the results above we can, without a doubt, conclude that the physical

appearance of politicians is a meaningful component of voter decision making. With

an average improvement of 21,68% appearance DOES matter, as Zebrowitz and

Montepare (2005) put forward. Most importantly these results confirm and affirm

previous research in the United States (Rosenberg, 1986, 1987a, 1987b 1991) and The

Netherlands (De Landtsheer, 2004) which leads us to believe European and American

perceptions of political suitability are very similar. These cross cultural analogies are

quite surprising seen the differences between both political systems. One should

expect physical appearance to be of greater importance in a presidency where

elections are run by political personalities whereas in Europe political parties still

have the upper hand, even though the personalization of politics is noticeable (Elms,

1976; Schwartzenberg, 1977; Caprara & Barbaranelli, 1999; Van Zoonen & Holtz-

Bacha, 2000; Caprara, Barbaranelli & Zimbardo, 2002; Carpini, & Williams, X).

The interplay between political party, slogan and image.

This second section will focus on the effect of the political slogan. The previous

section emphasized the importance of the physical appearance in Belgian politics

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whilst the political message was disregarded. Each politician, both with original and

adjusted appearance, was presented with all five political slogans. Thereby the impact

of the political slogan and the interaction with the political image can be retrieved.

Firstly the results from the different political parties will be discussed. Figure 1

reports the top-five results for each political party, whereas figure 2 only considers the

first choices by political party.

INSERT

Figure 1: Overview of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth choices by political

party (2005 experiment with Belgian city council members).

INSERT

Figure 2: Overview of the first choices by political party (2005 experiment with

Belgian city council members).

Both figures indicate the positive effect of the adjusted political appearance on voter

preference. All political parties have a greater chance to be chosen when presented

with the political preferable appearance (figure 1). With regard to the first choice

results (figure 2) CD&V (christian democratic party), VLD (conservative liberal

party) and SP.a (social democratic party) seemingly gain the most benefit with the

adjusted appearance although Groen! (green party) and Vlaams Belang (extreme right

party) profit from the physical adjustments as well.

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When all data are taken into consideration no significant correlation can be

demonstrated between political slogans and score. The different political slogans are

stated equally among the top five choices by the respondents. The results for original

and adjusted appearance show the same patterns and again indicate that no significant

interaction between political slogan and score is demonstrable. Looking at the

individual politicians and the political parties they belong to, once more no significant

relation can be retrieved.

At first sight these conclusions seem disappointing considering the manifest absence

of the relationship between the respondents’ choices and the political slogan for this

might indicate no importance is granted to the political message. Nonetheless

previous research in The Netherlands drew the same conclusions (De Landtsheer,

2004). In the next division respondents’ political preference is, along with

demographic information, linked to their preferred political physical appearance.

The interaction between the respondents’ demographic information and their

preferred physical appearance for politicians.

Firstly the relationship between the political ideology of the respondent and his or her

preferred physical appearance for politicians will be discussed. When the highest

score for each politician - in both original and adjusted version - is measured against

the respondents political preference only one significant correlation surfaces, more

specific this interaction is proven significant for subject 2 from the social democratic

party. Even when for the other politicians no significant relations are proven, some

conclusions can be drawn. Respondents who consider themselves as supporters of the

green ideas do not seem to prefer the more casual a-typical political appearance as one

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should predict. Furthermore - as the data above already suggested - most respondents,

regardless of the political party they account themselves to, tend to prefer the

adjusted, political suitable appearance.

Secondly the respondents’ gender deserves attention and leads to some interesting

findings which are significant at the 0,000 level.

INSERT

Table 4: male and female respondent preferences for male or female politicians (2005

experiment with Belgian city council members).

The overall results from the original photographs indicate that 56,7% of the male and

52,4% of the female respondents tend to prefer male politicians to female politicians.

For each of the top five places the majority of the female respondents indicate a male

politician whereas data from the male respondents unveil the same pattern with the

exception of the fifth choice where 50,8% favors a female politician. The results from

the adjusted pictures on the other hand show a different pattern for the majority of

female respondents favor a female political candidate for their second (51,4%) , fourth

(59,3%) and fifth choice (57,7%). The data from the male respondents for the adjusted

political appearance shows very similar results as retrieved for the original pictures

since male respondents seem to prefer a male politician for the first (75,4%), second

(61,5%), third (51%) and fourth choice (51,7%). Again only with the fifth choice the

majority of male respondents favors a female politician (58,5%). These conclusions

may suggest that both according to male and female voters - conscious or unconscious

- the political suitable appearance is more important for female politicians than for

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their male colleagues. Remarkably a vast majority of both male and female

respondents ascribe their first choice to male politicians (69,25%). These findings

confirm conclusions by Sigelman (1986, 1987) who postulated that men are most

reluctant to vote for women whilst the tendency for women to favor female candidates

was proven significantly less reliable. Furthermore he indicated that attractive male

candidates can take full advantage of the tendency to ascribe physical attractive

people positive characteristics whereas this is not always the case for female

candidates. The female physical attractive appearance mostly underlines the

femininity which means they are often perceived as not strong or efficient enough. On

the other hand women who appear too masculine come across as aggressive (Carroll,

1985).

Thirdly the different age categories demonstrate distinct outcomes. The adult data for

pictures with the original appearance demonstrate a clear preference for male

politicians in each possibility (first choice 67,6%, second 57,7%, third 68,4%, fourth

58,1% and fifth choice 53,8%). The results from the adult data for the adjusted

political appearance account for the trend explained above. From the adult data a

majority of the first choice politicians is male (70,5%) whilst the second (51%), third

(55,8%), fourth (54,7%) and fifth choice (64,4%) is more likely to be filled in by a

female politician. On the other hand one hundred and seventy five respondents are

younger than eighteen years of age and therefore haven’t got the privilege to vote in

Belgium. A remarkable result surfaces when we examine the results from this age-

group. If presented with the political original appearance the youngest respondents

tend to prefer female politicians (50,2%). When confronted with the adjusted pictures

they clearly favor male politicians (61,5%). These conclusions verify findings from

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previous research that demonstrated the stereotype perceptions of politics by young

respondents (De Vries, De Landtsheer, Heirman & Boudini; 2005).

Fourthly the level of education is taken into consideration. A difference is made

between high and low levels of education. The category low education contains all the

respondents who posses no higher diploma than secondary education whilst high

education includes respondents who attended university or other types of advanced

education. The majority of respondents with low education tend to appoint a male

politician for both the original (53,2%) and the adjusted data (56,5%). Especially their

first choice seems to be a male politician with 69,4% for the original and 70,8% for

the adjusted pictures. The respondents with a higher education appear to have the

same preferences when it comes to the political suitable appearance with 66,7% male

politicians for the first choices with original appearance and 70,1% male politicians

for the first choices with adjusted appearance. We therefore dare to conclude that the

level of education has little to no influence on the preferred political appearance.

When all the above is taken into consideration we may conclude that for both original

and adjusted political appearance male politicians are preferred to female politicians.

In the categories and choices where female politicians take the majority they tend to

be portrayed with the political adjusted appearance which leads us to believe a

political suitable appearance is seemingly more important for female politicians as for

their male colleagues. Nevertheless there are no extreme differences noticeable,

between the results concerning gender, age or level of education. Most noteworthy

conclusion is the insignificant influence of the respondents’ political conviction on

voter preference.

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DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

The results from this experiment undoubtably indicate the importance and influence

of the physical appearance in politics. Furthermore these conclusions link up perfectly

with previous research in the United States of America and The Netherlands,

indicating a strong and cross-cultural consensus about the political suitable

appearance in western democracies; which is consistent with findings by Masters and

Sullivan (1989). They indicated striking similarities in the system of perceived

political nonverbal behavior in France and the United States of America although

some small cultural differences could be demonstrated.

This research is imperative to learn more about the interactions and relations between

political perception and impression, political message and political appearances.

Especially in low information elections the physical appearance cues of political

candidates have been proven to be more important and decisive than candidate

experiences (Banducci, Thrasher, Rallings & Karp, 2003). The conclusions drawn in

this research demonstrate the detachment from the political slogan regardless the

respondent’s age, gender, political affiliation or level of education. At first sight these

conclusions may seem confusing. Nevertheless the extreme anxiety towards the

influence and power of the physical appearance or even personality in politics seems

misplaced. Ever since mankind walked the earth physical appearance has played an

important role in social relations. Why should facial cues or other physical inferences

be inferior to inferences from - for example - political discourse? The possibility of

manipulation has always been the prime concern - and therefore argument - to turn

against the influence of appearance and personality characteristics; even though

several studies have shown that inferences deduced from physical appearance,

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personality and nonverbal behavior can be surprisingly accurate (Zebrowitz, Hall,

Murphy & Rhodes, 2002; Zebrowitz, Fellous, Mignault & Andreoletti, 2003; Todorov

et al, 2005; Zebrowitz et al, 2005).

Nonetheless a warning is imperative. The political world should be run by honest,

honorable and genuine politicians regardless personality, physical appearance

characteristics and or manipulated persuasive discourse. This idea, as enticing and

seductive as it sounds, is unfortunately not more than a utopian dream. Voters, male

or female, higher educated or not, rich or poor, European, African or American do

grant importance to several aspects of political personality and image. Or as Newman

(1999) proclaimed: “Politics comes down to gut reactions about politicians and their

ideas. The emotion that we feel when we watch leaders are an integral part of how we

judge politicians.”

The research reported in this paper clearly indicates the importance awarded to the

physical appearance of politicians initiated by gut reactions and emotions. Therefore

the question that needs to be addressed is which mechanisms underlie the reactions to

qualities like facial appearance as Zebrowitz suggests (2005), and which are the

instigators of these psychological processes. Further research is imperative to answer

these challenging questions.

_____________________________________________________________

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Appendix 1: Photographs of original and adjusted appearance of the ten

Belgian city counsel politicians.

Subject 1 Subject 2 Vlaams Belang (extreme right party) SP.a (socialist democratic party)

De Backer De Richter Original Adjusted Original Adjusted

Subject 3 Subject 4 CD&V ( christian democratic party) VLD (conservative liberal party)

De Ridder Dupon Original Adjusted Original Adjusted

Subject 5 Subject 6 Groen! (green party) Groen! (green party)

Duré Lambert Original Adjusted Original Adjusted

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Appendix 1: continued

Subject 7 Subject 8 VLD (conservative liberal party) Vlaams Belang (extreme right party)

Pooters Van Campfort Original Adjusted Original Adjusted

Subject 9 Subject 10 SP.a (socialist democratic party) CD&V ( christian democratic party)

Van de Velde Vernieuwe Original Adjusted Original Adjusted

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Figure 1: Overview of the first, second, third, fourth and fifth choices by

political party (2005 experiment with Belgian city council members).

050

100150200250300350

CD&V VLD SP.A Groen! VlaamsBelang

original appearanceadjusted appearance

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Figure 2: Overview of the first choices by political party (2005 experiment

with Belgian city council members).

0102030405060708090

CD&V VLD SP.A Groen! VlaamsBelang

original appearanceadjusted appearance

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Table 1: Scores for every politician in the original and adjusted political

appearance (2005 experiment with Belgian city council members).

Score original

appearance Not

chosen Order Score

adjusted appearance

Not chosen

Order Difference

Subject 1. De Backer

67 26,8%

183 73,2% 7 138

55,2% 112

44,8% 6 + 28,4%

Subject 2. De Richter

121 48,4%

129 51,6% 4 170

68,0% 80

32% ¾ + 19,6%

Subject 3. De Ridder

73 29,2%

177 70,8% 6 169

67,6% 81

32,4% 5 + 38,4%

Subject 4. Dupon

163 65,2%

87 34,8% 2 214

85,6% 36

14,4% 1 + 20,4%

Subject 5. Duré

156 62,4%

94 37,6% 3 188

75,2% 62

24,8% 2 + 12,8%

Subject 6. Lambert

93 37,2%

157 62,8% 5 116

46,4% 134

53,6% 8 + 9,2%

Subject 7. Pooters

176 70,4%

74 29,6% 1 170

68,0% 80

32% ¾ - 2,4%

Subject 8. Van

Campfort

19 7,6%

231 92,4% 10 113

45,2% 137

54,8% 9 + 37,6%

Subject 9. Van de Velden

58 23,2%

192 76,8% 8 131

52,4% 119

47,6% 7 + 29,2%

Subject 10. Vernieuwe

52 20,8%

198 79,2% 9 111

44,4% 139

55,6% 10 + 23,6%


Table 2: Ranking of the top-five male and female politicians with original and

adjusted political appearance (2005 experiment with Belgian city council

members).

ranking original /adjusted appearance frequency percentage male 114 32,3%

original female 52 34% male 239 67,7%

1 adjusted

female 101 66% male 98 35,6%

original female 81 36,5% male 177 64,4%

2 adjusted

female 141 63,5% male 114 42,1%


3 adjusted

female 143 63,3% male 118 46,8%


4 adjusted

female 156 62,7% male 115 50,2%

original female 110 41% male 114 49,8%

5 adjusted

female 158 59%

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Table 3: mean value, median and mode value (2005 experiment with Belgian

city council members)

Original appearance Adjusted appearance

mean median mode mean median mode

Subject 1. 3,6 4 5 3,0 3 1

Subject 2. 3,1 3 3 2,6 2 1

Subject 3. 3,6 4 5 2,8 3 1

Subject 4. 2,8 3 2 2,3 2 1

Subject 5. 2,9 3 1 2,4 2 1

Subject 6. 3,4 4 5 3,4 3 3

Subject 7. 3,0 3 2 3,3 3 2

Subject 8. 4,1 5 5 3,4 4 4

Subject 9. 3,6 4 5 3,3 3 2

Subject 10. 3,2 4 5 3,2 3 4

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Table 4: male and female respondent preferences for male and female

politicians (2005 experiment with Belgian city council members).

Original appaerance

Male respondents

First choice Second choice Third choice Fourth choice Fifth choice Male

politician 76,8% 53,9% 61,5% 55% 49,2%

Female politician 23,2% 46,1% 38,5% 45% 50,8%

Female respondents First choice Second choice Third choice Fourth choice Fifth choice

Male politician 60,7% 55,6% 53,4% 57,1% 53,4%

Female politician 39,3% 44,4% 46,6% 42,9% 46,6%

Adjusted appearance

Male respondents

First choice Second choice Third choice Fourth choice Fifth choice Male

politician 75,4% 61,5% 51% 51,7% 41,5%

Female politician 24,6% 38,5% 49% 48,3% 58,5%

Female respondents First choice Second choice Third choice Fourth choice Fifth choice

Male politician 64,1% 48,6% 53,8% 40,7% 42,3%

Female politician 35,9% 51,4% 46,2% 59,3% 57,7%

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