Scientists Prove What We Already Knew: Hot Politicians Get More Media Attention

Thank you, Scientific Community, for brightening up our Friday afternoon with this wonderfully hilarious proving-what-we-all-secretly-suspected study. Published this year by a group of Israeli scientists from the University of Haifa’s Department of Communication, the study proves there’s a link between the attractiveness of political figures and how much attention the media lavishes upon them. (Hat tip to Gawker for immediately citing Rep. Aaron Schock as a beneficiary of this correlation.)

Of course, as the researchers explain, the study has an actual, practical purpose in the political world:

Nowadays, publicists and campaigners, as well as politicians themselves, are aware of the importance of media skills. Our study demonstrates how being attentive to outward appearance must be included in these skills, seeing as it can increase the politician’s exposure through the media.

So it looks Sarah Palin now has a legitimate excuse for spending so much of the RNC’s money on her wardrobe during the 2008 campaign. (Not that her ability to attract media attention was ever in question, mind you.)

The researchers, though, also had a brief point to make about the journalists who do all that lavishing of attention:

Earlier studies have shown that people generally tend to prefer the company of people who are physically attractive and even value them as more worthy people. Our study reveals that journalists probably behave just like the rest.

Really? We never would have guessed. The media’s obsession with Sen. Scott Brown‘s Cosmo spread was strictly about policy, right?

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