Political Leaders’ Nonverbals
When it comes to being elected, a candidate’s nonverbal communication may predict their chances of success, especially in a two-horse race. Appearance seriously helps, and when you include other nonverbals, such as a candidate’s body language, it seems that what the candidates say, may be less important than how they look saying it.
Nixon vs. Kennedy
The 1960 TV debate between presidential candidates Nixon and Kennedy demonstrated the influence of body language. While most radio listeners rated Nixon the winner of the debate, the majority of those that watched the same debate, had Kennedy as the victor. Nixon, refusing make up, was sweaty (unhealthy looking) and wiped his face (adaptors). Kennedy, who wore make up (looking heathier and more attractive), gestured well and took up more horizontal space (dominance).
The 1960 debate is just one example of looks influencing the polls, the case of Warren Harding being another.
Warren Harding
Warren Harding (born 1865) from Ohio was a former teacher, insurance worker and law student who part purchased a struggling local newspaper, The Marion Star. With the financial support of his father, Harding later took outright ownership of the paper. During the 1880s he built up its circulation, appealing to both moderate Republican and some Democrat voters with a middling, balanced approach to politics.
“Gee, what a great-looking President he'd make,” commented Harry Daugherty. By that time, in his mid-thirties, Harding’s black hair and eyebrows were thick, his head and its features large, and he had strong, broad shoulders on a well-proportioned body that moved with fluidity, and when he stood, he stood tall and was rooted. In addition to looking handsome and healthy (bronze skin), Harding was affable and appeared calm. When he spoke, he did so with a deep voice. In terms of his nonverbals, he was a sure vote-winner.
Harding rose through the political ranks, despite having few ideas and plenty of vices (gambling, womanising). As an orator, he relied on his voice, his looks, and his ability to make few enemies, a carryover from his newspaper days. After being elected to the senate in 1914, he tactfully missed the votes on suffrage and prohibition. Harding was not an intelligent, hard-working or politically shrewd operator, but he had a couple of key supporters. The motivation to enter and pursue a political career came from Harding’s wife and advisor Florence; but it was the aforementioned lawyer and lobbyist Harry Daugherty, who had first noted Harding’s nonverbal qualities, that pulled Harding’s political strings.
Harding was not an impressive politician and was more known for offering favours for favours than any role in policy. However, as he entered middle-age he became even more physically distinguished, his hair greying quickly whilst his expressive eyebrows remained dark. In 1916 he addressed the Republican convention but would need convincing to ever run himself.
Theodore Roosevelt was thought the most likely to gain the Republican nomination for the next election, only he died unexpectedly in 1919. With no clear favourite, Daugherty soon pushed Harding’s name, becoming his campaign manager. The New York World found Harding the least-qualified candidate since James Buchanan, describing him as a "weak and mediocre" man who "never had an original idea." As the candidates walked out, Harding was ranked 6th out of 6. Despite this, and his failings, the optics were good, and Harding won the nomination.
His presidential nonverbals soon appealed to wider voters who couldn’t be dissuaded by his lack of strong opinion. In fact, his normalcy and inability to get off the fence allowed voters to have their positive image of him confirmed by his views, a bias rooted in his strong first impression.
When the election came he received a whopping 60.2 percent of the popular vote, becoming the 29th president of the United States from 1921 until his untimely death in 1923 from a heart attack.
Harding is considered by many to be one of the worst US presidents and, after his death, a number of scandals came to light, and extramarital affair. His fixer (and attorney general) Harry Daugherty, was tried for corruption in office, though he was not convicted.
It takes under a second
Faces predict races
Research led by Alexander Todorov has demonstrated that snap facial judgments can predict election results. When asked to rapidly appraise the relative competence of two candidates’ faces, people can predict the winner about 70 percent of the time. This was the findings using U.S. senator and state governor elections.
Participants were shown a series of photos, each with a pair of faces, and asked to choose who they thought was the more competent. The subjects were unaware that the faces belonged to actual candidates in yet to be run elections. When the election results came back, the snap judgements on competency, from headshots alone, predicted the winners in 72.4 percent of the senatorial races.
With a quick look at two photos, you have a great chance of predicting who will win.” Alexander Todorov.
When it comes to media reporting in election time, an image says more than a thousand words, Be it Ed Milliband eating a bacon roll, Joe Biden falling over or Rishi Sunak drenched in the rain, candidates need to pay more heed to the visuals than the verbals.
Further reading – My article on face-width-height ratio?
In case you are wondering, Starmer has a higher fwhr than Sunak!
Will that transfer to votes come July 4th?
Comments