Abstract
Political elections have a profound impact on individuals and societies. Optimal voting is thought to be based on informed and deliberate decisions yet, it has been demonstrated that the outcomes of political elections are biased by the perception of candidates’ facial features and the stereotypical traits voters attribute to these. Interestingly, political identification changes the attribution of stereotypical traits from facial features. This study explores whether the perception of body shape elicits similar effects on political trait attribution and whether these associations can be visualized. In Experiment 1, ratings of 3D body shapes were used to model the relationship between perception of 3D body shape and the attribution of political traits such as ‘Republican’, ‘Democrat’, or ‘Leader’. This allowed analyzing and visualizing the mental representations of stereotypical 3D body shapes associated with each political trait. Experiment 2 was designed to test whether political identification of the raters affected the attribution of political traits to different types of body shapes. The results show that humans attribute political traits to the same body shapes differently depending on their own political preference. These findings show that our judgments of others are influenced by their body shape and our own political views. Such judgments have potential political and societal implications.
Highlights
In democracies, political candidates are elected to represent and enforce the citizens’ will
It has been demonstrated that character traits inferred from the facial features of political candidates could predict the outcome of the U.S congressional elections (Ballew and Todorov, 2007; Carpinella and Johnson, 2016; Goren et al, 2005; Olivola and Todorov, 2010)
We modeled the relationship between 3D body shapes and political trait ratings
Summary
Political candidates are elected to represent and enforce the citizens’ will. We use a statistical 3D body model and linearly regress between 3D body shapes and perceptual ratings to visualize and analyze stereotypes of political traits and how such stereotypes vary with political identification. The use of linear regression, perceptual ratings of body shapes, and a statistical body model allowed us to analyze and visualize the mental representations of body shape (stereotype bodies) associated with different political traits for raters of different political identifications. If body shape elicits the attribution of political traits, we should be able to automatically predict 3D body shape from political trait ratings and vice versa using our model This model allows us to quantify the relationship between 3D body shape and political trait ratings and allows us to visualize the mental stereotype representations associated with each political trait
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