People rely on the facial appearance of political candidates when voting. Here, we examine whether the perceived competence, trustworthiness, and attractiveness of male Italian mayoral candidates (n = 150) predicts their electoral success. Building on situational leadership theory, we also examine whether association between apparent traits and electoral success are moderated by contextual factors. Specifically, we test whether trustworthy-looking politicians are more successful in Southern Italy where political corruption is a more salient issue. Across three preregistered studies (N = 470), we find that attractive-looking candidates were more successful. Perceived competence and trustworthiness were not consistently associated with electoral success. Moreover, we do not find evidence that regional variation in corruption moderates the success of trustworthy-looking politicians.

中文翻译：

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男性意大利政治人物的面容与选举成功

人们在投票时依赖政治候选人的面部表情。在这里，我们研究了男性意大利市长候选人（n = 150）的感知能力，可信赖性和吸引力是否预示了他们的选举成功。在情境领导理论的基础上，我们还研究了表观特质与选举成功之间的关联是否受到情境因素的调节。具体来说，我们测试在政治腐败是一个更加突出问题的意大利南部，值得信赖的政客是否更成功。在三项预先注册的研究（N = 470）中，我们发现具有吸引力的候选人更为成功。感知的能力和可信赖性与选举成功并不一致。此外，