… A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explains why the judges liked Chia-Jung Tsay more when they could see her perform. The researcher who published the study: Chia-Jung Tsay. In addition to her music career, Tsay is also a psychologist at University College, London. …
In fact, Tsay’s study is only the latest to show that people’s judgments on all manner of issues are shaped by what they see. We know we shouldn’t judge books by their covers, but marketers know we do anyway. Economists and political psychologists have found that voters can predict the winners of elections when they watch videos of the candidates — with the sound off. [cont.]
Shankar Vedantam, NPR