Faces Predict Election Outcomes

Evidencia empírica de que la brillante sonrisa de Enrique Peña es un buen
indicador de su nivel de competencia:

Inferences of Competence from Faces Predict Election Outcomes
Alexander Todorov, Anesu N. Mandisodza, Amir Goren Crystal C. Hall
SCIENCE VOL 308 10 JUNE 2005

We show that inferences of competence based solely on facial appearance
predicted the outcomes of U.S. congressional elections better than chance
(e.g., 68.8% of the Senate races in 2004) and also were linearly related to
the margin of victory. These inferences were specific to competence and
occurred within a 1-second exposure to the faces of the candidates. The
findings suggest that rapid, unreflective trait inferences can contribute to
voting choices, which are widely assumed to be based primarily on rational
and deliberative considerations.