How important are looks in an election? Do voters make judgments based on the trustworthiness of a candidate’s appearance?
These questions and others are at the heart of a study currently being conducted by members of a student research group mentored by Dr. Elizabeth Spievak’s, associate professor of psychology. The study extends work previously done by BSU student researchers.
The goal of the study is to examine how the strength of political ideals and political knowledge influence person perception, as measured by the classification of altered images of politician’s faces and how those relationships are informed by the psychology of groups.
Click the image below to see and hear students Katherine Saucier, ’12, and Lukas Klapatch, ’14, discuss their research.
The findings were presented at the 2013 Eastern Psychological Association Conference in New York City, and the Association for Psychological Science in Chicago and Washington, D.C. The research will be published in the journal Psychological Science.
The findings are “just the latest evidence of how our attitudes influence our perception,” Dr. Spievak said. “The camera does not lie, but our minds may.”
(Video shot and edited by student Kerri Spero, University News)
