Onderzoeksartikel

Politiek impressiemanagement, een Nederlandse casestudy: drie experimenten over het uiterlijk van mannen en de perceptie van politieke geschiktheid

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Abstract

The possible impact of such factors as the facial features of the candidate, the pose adopted, the general styling of the hair and the clothing worn was explored in three (multi-group) experiments. This article details the procedure and the results of such experiments which were performed in The Netherlands analogical to experiments performed in the us by Shawn Rosenberg. 309 subjects evaluated video fragments, photographs, and campaign flyers during mock elections. The stimulus materials included ‘head and shoulders’s hots of males unknown to the subjects. Each subject evaluated the stimulus materials on six different dimensions: physical attractiveness, intelligence, trustworthiness, friendliness, leadership capacities and political demeanor. The analysis of the data indicated a relationship between the perception of leadership capacities, intelligence and political demeanor. An examination of the particular features of the candidates with high and low political demeanor ratings made it possible to identify those specific elements of a visual presentation which contribute to the projection of a favorable political image. We further examined whether it is possible to use this information in order to create a composite look which conveys a positive political image. To do so, we employed a master class of media make-up artists to prepare a number of local politicians according to the instructions based on the results of the former experiments. The candidates were photographed and their pictures placed on campaign flyers. Each candidate was photographed twice, once in a favorable condition (positive political image) and once in an unfavorable condition (original or negative political image) .Campaign flyers contained three slogans collected from five local parties. The flyers were arranged in pairs thereby creating ten different electoral contests. Each pair was prepared so that there was an appropriate opposition of all five parties. In addition, all parties were represented by using one flyer with a photograph of a candidate presented favorably and a second flyer with a photograph of another candidate presented unfavorably. Ten groups of subjects were presented with a packet of ten flyers. They were asked to order the flyers from who they would like most to least to represent them in the city council. Also, they were instructed to record their responses on an answer sheet as well as to score each of the ten ‘candidates’ according to the six dimensions as outlined before. The results of this experiment, on the assessment of the effect of appearance on the popularity of male candidates in a mock election, indicate a strong and consistent effect of the manipulation of the candidates’ appearance on the electoral outcomes.

How to Cite:

De Landtsheer, C., Wolf, C., De Jonge, S. & Berkvens, S., (1999) “Politiek impressiemanagement, een Nederlandse casestudy: drie experimenten over het uiterlijk van mannen en de perceptie van politieke geschiktheid”, Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap 27(1), 63–80.