Pinky: My Boston Globe headshot.

Also pinky (and bespectacled): My choice for president, Bob Barr. (Note, too, the similarity in name.)

Why? Perhaps because he looks like a Baard.

It’s depressing to realize that your thoughts are not under your control.

Stanford U. scientists now believe a candidate’s looks can make him our choice in the voting booth.

And it’s not about which candidate is better looking, but which one the voter perceives to look most like himself.

That makes sense from that ole evolutionary/natural selection point-of-view.

The Stanford finding might also explain why I am voting for Bob Barr.

Image: Jack Hubbard

I thought I was voting for Barr because he is the Libertarian Party pick. I am in a solidly Democrat state, so my vote is not required to save the country from Sarah Palin. But now I’m thinking it’s the pink face and the glasses that are behind my choice. (The Stanford experiment actually looked at facial features, as indicated by the image, above.)

Paul Baard. Photo: Chris Taggart

Barr also looks a bit like my father, Fordham University Associate Professor Paul Baard (right).

In a paper slated to be published in the December issue of Public Opinion Quarterly, Jeremy Bailenson, an assistant professor of communication, and Shanto Iyengar, the Harry and Norman Chandler Professor in Communication, say that people are subconsciously swayed by candidates who share their facial features.

via Voters Swayed By Candidates Who Share Their Looks, Researchers Say