Why people vote for good-looking candidates

Ever wondered what makes you vote for a particular candidate in elections while ignoring others? There is a mechanism for that in our brain, says a study.

The study showed that a part of the brain called the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (LOFC) must function properly if voters are to make choices that combine different sources of information about the candidates.

"How multiple attributes are combined in decision-making and how values are constructed is an important field that is just starting to be considered," said Lesley Fellows, a neurologist and researcher at the Montreal Neurological Institute.

The study found that damage to the LOFC leads people to base their vote on simpler information, namely the candidate's good looks.

Healthy individuals and those with brain damage affecting other parts of the frontal lobes spontaneously weighed both attractiveness and an assessment of the candidate's competence when making their choices.

The study by researchers from Canada's McGill University provides the first evidence that the LOFC is critical for integrating different kinds of information to allow people to arrive at a preference.

"Recent research suggests that several areas in the brain carry information about the value of decision options, but it is not yet clear how these areas work together when we make a choice. The LOFC appears to be important when decisions are hard, helping to select the best from among options of similar value," Fellows said.

The study tested subjects with and without damage affecting the LOFC.

Participants took part in a simulated election task, where they were asked to vote for real-life but, unknown politicians based only on their photographs.

Imagining themselves in an electoral period, participants were also asked to rate the perceived attractiveness and competence of the candidates.

Participants without lesions in the LOFC appeared to make voting decisions based on both perceived attractiveness and competence.

Although subjects with LOFC damage could rate the competence of the candidates, they did not use this information when voting, instead relying only on the attractiveness factor.

The study appeared in the Journal of Neuroscience.