Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates

The conventional wisdom on Western European politics leads us to believe that all the “action” lies with parties, because the unified parliamentary delegations in Western Europe draw voters’ attention to parties’ policies and images. Though British elections take place under a single member district...

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Main Authors:	Mattes, Kyle, Milazzo, Caitlin
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Elsevier 2013
Online Access:	http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/1/Pretty%20Faces%20Marginal%20Races%20%2807-08-13%29.pdf

id	nottingham-34565
recordtype	eprints
spelling	nottingham-345652018-06-27T09:33:52Z http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/ Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates Mattes, Kyle Milazzo, Caitlin The conventional wisdom on Western European politics leads us to believe that all the “action” lies with parties, because the unified parliamentary delegations in Western Europe draw voters’ attention to parties’ policies and images. Though British elections take place under a single member district plurality system, British parties, like their continental counterparts, are highly centralised and feature disciplined parliamentary delegations. Despite the strong ties between British candidates and their parties, we demonstrate that perceptions of candidates’ personal at-tributes can be used to predict general election outcomes. Using a computer-based survey where subjects are asked to evaluate real British candidates using only rapidly determined first impressions of facial images, we successfully predict outcomes from the 2010 general election. Moreover, we find that perceptions of candidates’ relative attractiveness are particularly useful for predicting outcomes in marginal constituencies. Elsevier 2013-11-26 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc_nd http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/1/Pretty%20Faces%20Marginal%20Races%20%2807-08-13%29.pdf Mattes, Kyle and Milazzo, Caitlin (2013) Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates. Electoral Studies, 34 (1). pp. 177-189. ISSN 0261-3794 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261379413001819 doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2013.11.004 doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2013.11.004
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
building	Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	The conventional wisdom on Western European politics leads us to believe that all the “action” lies with parties, because the unified parliamentary delegations in Western Europe draw voters’ attention to parties’ policies and images. Though British elections take place under a single member district plurality system, British parties, like their continental counterparts, are highly centralised and feature disciplined parliamentary delegations. Despite the strong ties between British candidates and their parties, we demonstrate that perceptions of candidates’ personal at-tributes can be used to predict general election outcomes. Using a computer-based survey where subjects are asked to evaluate real British candidates using only rapidly determined first impressions of facial images, we successfully predict outcomes from the 2010 general election. Moreover, we find that perceptions of candidates’ relative attractiveness are particularly useful for predicting outcomes in marginal constituencies.
format	Article
author	Mattes, Kyle Milazzo, Caitlin
spellingShingle	Mattes, Kyle Milazzo, Caitlin Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates
author_facet	Mattes, Kyle Milazzo, Caitlin
author_sort	Mattes, Kyle
title	Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates
title_short	Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates
title_full	Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates
title_fullStr	Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates
title_full_unstemmed	Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates
title_sort	pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of british parliamentary candidates
publisher	Elsevier
publishDate	2013
url	http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/ http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/34565/1/Pretty%20Faces%20Marginal%20Races%20%2807-08-13%29.pdf
first_indexed	2018-09-06T12:29:14Z
last_indexed	2018-09-06T12:29:14Z
_version_	1610861201030381568

Pretty faces, marginal races: predicting election outcomes using trait assessments of British Parliamentary candidates

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