Study: Sarah Palin Too Pretty to Attract Voters

Via the LA Times comes word of a theory sure to raise a few eyebrows:

Newly released academic research suggests that Sarah Palin's sexiness, while great for selling copies of Vogue magazine and political buttons about the hottest governor from the coldest state last fall, may actually have hurt her vote-getting ability, which seems to be what elections are all about.

The research, conducted by a psychologists at the University of South Florida actually confirms the findings of other studies that shows that beautiful women have a hard time being taken seriously in the work place. Just how did the researchers arrive at the conclusion that Palin's good looks turned out to be more of a hindrance than a help in terms of winning in November?

They took a group of 133 undergraduates and assigned them to write a few lines about one of two celebrities: Palin or actress Angelina Jolie. Half of the participants in each category were asked to write "your thoughts and feelings about this person," while the other half were asked to write "your thoughts and feelings about this person's appearance."

The participants were then asked to rate their subject (Palin or Jolie) in terms of various attributes, including competence. Finally, they were asked who they intended to vote for in the upcoming election.

Those who wrote about Palin's appearance were more positive in their assessments than those who assessed her qualities as a person. But they rated her far lower in terms of competence, intelligence and capability, and were far less likely to indicate they panned to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket.

Nathan Heflick, one of the studies co-author's, found the results disturbing. In essence, the perception among the college students he querried showed that when a woman is pretty, people are less likely to think of her as being competent. In other words, even if McCain had picked Angelina Jolie, the election results may have been the same.