Good looking people get better dates, make more money and win more political offices but they also get more media coverage, researchers in Israel found.
Dr. Yariv Tsfati, Dana Markowitz Elfassi, Dr. Israel Waismel-Manor of the University of Haifa said the study was and based on a thesis written by
Markowitz Elfassi.
The researchers tracked the coverage of all members of the 16th Israeli Knesset on several TV channels. Photos of each member of Knesset were rated by Dutch students who were not familiar with the personalities to avoid a political bias or any sort of partiality.
The researchers controlled for other factors including age, sector, political tenure and political centrality.
The study, published in the International Journal of Press/Politics, found the more attractive politicians are covered in TV news more than less
attractive politicians, with physical appearance having more influence on the amount of coverage for women than men.
Even though female politicians were rated highest for looks, the overall television news reporting on them was significantly less than that of men,
while young members of Knesset got higher marks for appearance, but their media coverage was lower.