Why do people vote for a candidate?

  Why do people vote for a certain candidate? Is it the political know how of the candidate, and the agreement upon the issues between a politician and a voter, that garners the vote? Is it the influential ads that attract a voter? Is it the charming, irresistible smile of the candidate and the firm handshake that gains the check mark come election time? More often than not, sadly, it is the latter that is truest. Most voters decide who they will cast their vote for just by taking a brief glance at the candidates. The difference between candidates in the average voters' mind is their appearance, not their political views. As wrong as this is, it is all too true in our society today.

   According to a study done by Princeton University, "researchers determined that they could accurately predict the winners in approximately 70 percent of the races for U.S. senator, and governor in the 2006 elections, based solely upon the faces of the candidates." I performed similar research to this 2006 survey by asking students as well as adults whom they would vote for when shown two politicians who had previously run against each other. I did not tell the survey-taker who the people in the photographs were, I just asked them to tell me which person they would vote for. In 62.5 percent of cases, the majority of those surveyed chose the eventual winner of the election. Without knowing the party of the candidate, or anything about what either person stood for, the prevailing candidate was chosen in over 60 percent of the time in both surveys. Such an incredible preference shows that the actual issues of politics are not nearly as important to voters as they should be. Instead, voters are more caught up in what a candidate looks like than anything else. By providing those surveyed with several female candidates as well as multiple minority candidates throughout the survey, I was amazed to find that those surveyed were still able to distinguish which women and minority candidates, and which lost. This just goes to show to an even more extensive level how greatly the voters' decisions align with solely the appearance of the candidates as opposed to their reputations, stances, speeches, ads, or campaigns.

   In the most recent elections for President and Senate, voters under 30 years old were much more likely to vote Democrat. Furthermore, voters over the age of 65 were much more likely to vote Republican. Disparities like these display that voting cannot solely be based on appearance, but it is impossible to dispute how shocking it is for more than 60 percent of people to select the winning candidate just based on appearance. The majority of those polled were younger voters, but there was no recognizable deference towards specific candidates between them. However, the fact that appearance decided nearly every race in both surveys is undeniable, and is a testament to how politics has gone wrong in America, and possible could attribute to why we have suffered such a harsh several years economically as well as globally.