GOP vice¹ presidential nominee² Sarah Palin was criticized for $150,000 spent on her wardrobe, hair and makeup³.Women running for top offices need to appear competent and attractive, according to a new study. For male candidates, seeming competent may be enough.

Women running for top offices need to appear competent and attractive, according to a new study. For male candidates, seeming competent may be enough.

Scientists have discovered the "Beauty Bounce" does exist and that for female candidates having a pretty face really does win votes from both men and women.

The research suggests that the much-vaunted £100,000 spent on Sarah Palin, the vice presidential hopeful's wardrobe and the high salary of her make-up artist really is money well spent.

The study by Northwestern University in Chicago found that while the perception of competence⁴ was the biggest vote winner, for women at least beauty could give them an extra boost - especially among men.

"Even female voters seemed to tap into the cultural expectation that women who are attractive as well as competent are more worthy⁵ of high status roles," said Joan Chiao, assistant professor of psychology⁶ at the university..

The team of researchers asked 73 people (35 male and 38 female) to look at the faces of 106 relatively⁷ unknown congressional candidates from the 2006 House of Representatives election.

They were asked to rate them on a number of factors including competence, attractiveness and approachability on a scale of one to seven, from 'not at all' to 'very much'.

They were then later asked if they would vote for the same candidates for president.

Overall, voters perceived the faces of male politicians as more competent and dominant⁸ relative to female politicians; female politicians were perceived as more attractive and approachable relative to males.

Candidates who were perceived as more attractive by men were more likely to win votes in the actual Congressional election, Prof Chiao noted⁹.

The research, published in the Public Library of Science One journal, found that attractiveness was not a factor for male candidates.

For men voting for male candidates it was all about competence whereas for women it was a mixture of competence and approachability.

 一项最新研究显示，竞选社会要职的女性既要显得能力不凡，又要具备一定的吸引力。而对于男性竞选者来说，只要看上去能干就足够了。

科学家发现选举中的“美貌效应”不容忽视，即漂亮的女候选人往往能赢得更多的选民——无论是男性选民还是女性选民。

由此看来，共和党副总统候选人莎拉•佩林“斥资”10万英镑购置名牌服饰和高薪聘用时尚顾问还是很值得的。

这项由芝加哥西北大学开展的研究发现，尽管候选人的能力是赢得竞选的最大砝码，但对于女候选人来说，美貌则能为她们赢得不少额外加分——尤其是男性选民。

该大学的心理学助理教授Joan Chiao说：“甚至女性选民也有这种文化期待，即既有魅力又能干的女性应该担任社会要职。”

研究人员向73名研究对象（35名男性和38名女性）展示了2006年参加众议院选举的106位候选人的照片，这些候选人都不太为人们所熟知。

研究人员让研究对象根据能力、吸引力和可接近度等一系列因素对这些候选人进行评分，分值范围为1至7分，代表“一点不好”到“非常好”几个等级。

之后，研究对象要决定是否会选举这些人为总统。

总体来看，男候选人在能力与控制力方面的得分高于女候选人，而女候选人在吸引力和可接近度方面则强于男候选人。

Chiao教授指出，在男性看来具有吸引力的候选人在当年的议会选举中得到的选票也较多。

该项在《公共科学图书馆-综合》上公布的研究发现，吸引力对于男候选人来说不那么重要。

对于男性选民来说，“能力”是他们在选举男候选人时所考虑的最主要因素，而对于女候选人而言，除了能力之外，是否容易接近也十分重要。