Elections can be decided on the basis of automatic
evaluations of a candidate’s face that take less than one second. These
inferences are specific to competence and they could predict better than chance
68.8 percent of the US Senate race results in 2004. Such a finding suggests
fast, unreflective trait inferences can contribute to voting choices. We
replicated this finding for the 2012 and 2016 municipal elections that took
place in the southern Brazil state of Santa Catarina. Mayors could have been
elected partially by automatic perceptions of competence.
Cite this paper
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