Looks Fetch More Votes for Women Candidates

Women had better appear attractive as well as competent if they want to be elected to political office, according to research published on Thursday.

The reason may be the same as people preferring attractive mates good looks tend to signal overall biological fitness, said psychologist Joan Chiao of Northwestern University in Illinois.

“People have found that aspects of the face predict, for example, whether or not somebody is at height of their estrus cycle” and thus fertile, Chiao said in a telephone interview. “Aspects of male faces seem to predict levels of testosterone.”

In other words, humans find certain features attractive not because there is some “true” measure of beauty but because they signal success.

The study relied on 73 college students but the researchers said the findings fit in not only with conventional wisdom but with other research. Despite inroads made by the likes of New York senator Hillary Clinton and Republican vice presidential candidates and Alaska governor Sarah Palin, men continue to hold an advantage overall.

“All voters perceived male politicians as significantly more competent compared to female politicians,” Chiao and colleagues wrote in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE. Chiao’s team showed photographs of candidates for Congress in 2006 to their volunteers and asked questions such as whether they would choose one over the other for president.

Everyone had to seem competent to get a vote. But while men needed to appear approachable to get an edge, women had to be good looking, the researchers found.

Studies have shown that this effect tends to go away when more women run for high office as has happened in India, for example, Chiao said.

“Voters may be able to learn to reduce their reliance on these cognitive short cuts,” she said.

Although Chiao’s team only used photographs to ask about the hypothetical voting situations, they found that their “election” mirrored the real 2006 results.

Looks fetch, women, attractive mates, face predict, good looking,

Source: TOI

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Laws of Attraction and Om Shanti Om

As a student we have studied laws of attraction of physics and chemistry. However, there exist another set of laws of attraction referred to as New Age Laws of attraction.

These say that people’s thoughts (both conscious and unconscious) dictate the reality of their lives, whether or not they’re aware of it.

This also says “if you really want something and believe it’s possible, you’ll probably get it” but that putting a lot of attention and thought onto something you don’t want means you’ll probably get that too.

If you are interested in this science you must have come across a movie called The Secret which came out in 2006.

This concept has been equally crticised as well because claims of the law of attraction appear impossible without violating established scientific principles and our understanding of the universe.

However, modern proponents say that the Law of Attraction has roots in Quantum Physics. According to them, thoughts have an energy that attracts like energy. In order to control this energy, proponents state that people must practice four things

• Know what one desires and ask the universe for it.
• Focus one’s thought upon the thing desired with great feeling such as enthusiasm or gratitude.
• Feel and behave as if the object of one’s desire is already acquired.
• Be open to receiving it.

If one abides by these principles, and avoids “negative” thoughts, the Universe will manifest a person’s desires.

In my view , it comes to matter of belief.  This law transcends science to embrace spirituality. Because it works on belief, the results would be widely arranged.

I recently watched a movie by Shahrukh Khan called Om Shanti Om. You might remember this movie for its clash and eventual victory against Sanwaria.

This movie also used the this concept of law of attraction.

The hero desires for something but dies without being fulfilled. He is reborn and all desires are met with.

Have you ever tested strength of this law.

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Understanding Attraction

Attraction has many a definition which vary from particle attraction to gravitational forces. But today we intend to talk about interpersonal attraction.

Interpersonal attraction is the attraction between people that leads to friendships and romantic relationships. Read more

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