Taller Candidate = More Votes?

Researchers first had participants describe and draw figures representing their concept of a typical citizen and an ideal national leader. 64% drew a leader that was taller than the typical citizen.Then, participants answered a survey about their personal perceptions of political leadership and attitudes about  running for office - revealing a significant relationship between height and perceived leadership capability and also in running for office. What's more, a preference for taller leaders exists in various societies (e.g. ancient Mayans, pre-classical Greeks), among the majority of American presidents, and even animals.

Just so you know - John McCain is 5'8", President Obama is 6'1" but Mitt Romney is 6'2"...

Vote Carefully

Researchers have found that the physical location of where people vote affects how they vote. Studying the 2000 general election, in Arizona the ballot included an initiative to raise state taxes to support education. People who voted in a school building were more likely to vote for the proposal than those voting at elsewhere.

In the lab, subjects were shown images, some pertaining to schools. Later, they were asked to vote on funding for education - those who had looked at lockers were more likely to vote yes.

Sports: A Factor In Voting

Stanford scientists say local sporting events affects our voting behavior.

Because humans are emotional creatures, feelings about one thing affect others. Election results from 20 years’ worth of presidential, senatorial and gubernatorial races revealed that a pre-election home-team win gave the incumbent a boost of ~2 percentage points.

Results were consistent when studying college basketball as well.