You can’t judge a book by its cover – or so the old saying goes. But what about a politician? Can you know just by looking at a person whether he or she will be fit to run your country?

While appearances may be deceptive, and say nothing about a person’s qualifications, subconscious bias certainly plays a role in election campaigns.

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Attractive people, we seem to believe, make good leaders, wrote Stanford law professor Deborah Rhode in her book, “The Beauty Bias.” According to her research, good-looking politicians – like Kennedy – win more votes.