Nichloas Rule and Nalini Ambady from Tufts University think Democrats and Republicans Can Be Differentiated from Their Faces: Individuals' faces communicate a great deal of information about them. Although some of this information tends to be perceptually obvious (such as race and sex), much of it is perceptually ambiguous, without clear or obvious visual cues.
Here's the their Takeaway: These data suggest that perceivers' beliefs about who is a Democrat and Republican may be based on perceptions of traits stereotypically associated with the two political parties and that, indeed, the guidance of these stereotypes may lead to categorizations of others' political affiliations at rates significantly more accurate than chance guessing. My takeaway: You can in fact judge a book by its cover.
The first question that comes to mind is, what do I look like? No, not me - you! For the record, I am a happy go lucky soul with a winning smile. Apply it to the people who populate Wusta? I already have my answer. Apply the methodology to the faces on the City Council members. One thing becomes readily apparent, they talk out of both sides of their mouths, rant like republicans, squirm like Democrats, espouse like Socialists. Raises the question, is Wusta politically unique? No, there's nothing unique about our vapid politicians.
