Who's playing the cute card: Obama or McCain?
Posted: Tuesday, September 09, 2008
OMAHA (AP) -- Who's cuter: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama or his Republican opponent, John McCain, whose got 25 years on him?
Politics aside, the answer usually boils down to personal taste.
Maybe not. A new computer program from a University of Nebraska Medical Center researcher quantifies physical attractiveness using 29 facial measurements. It tabulates characteristics such as distance between the eyes and length of the ears and nose and issues a score of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most attractive.
In a single matchup, 72-year-old McCain edged out 47-year-old Obama -- 7.27 to 7.24. But an average of 20 head-to-head comparisons using multiple photos put Obama firmly in the lead: He scored 7.0 to McCain's 6.5.
"It's only based on geometry -- that's it," said Kendra Schmid, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the Omaha school. "We didn't include age or eye color or things that obviously go into attractiveness."
A study detailing her program appeared in the August issue of the journal Pattern Recognition.
It works by uploading a photo -- ideally an expressionless mug shot with the mouth closed and the ears showing -- and using the computer mouse to mark the facial measurements.
Those measurements, Schmid said, were devised from neoclassical definitions of beauty, including instructions handed down by Leonardo da Vinci on how to draw the perfect face. She said they hold up well against personal opinions of who's hot and who's not.
But there is a margin of error.
Schmid said the user manually plots the measurements, so it's difficult to hit the same spot on the face every time. She typically rates attractiveness using several photos of the same person and tabulating each photo multiple times, then averages the scores.
Schmid downplayed the idea that attractiveness will play a role in who's sitting in the White House next year.
"I don't think being more attractive can hurt their chances ... but if it has anything to do with who wins, I don't know."
Still, the computer program's average attractiveness score for previous presidential candidates matched the winner in three of the past four races. Here's a rundown:
-- 2004: Democrat John Kerry, 7.94; Republican George W. Bush, 6.86. Bush wins.
-- 2000: Republican George W. Bush, 6.86; Democrat Al Gore, 6.1. Bush wins.
-- 1996: Democrat Bill Clinton, 8.72; Republican Bob Dole, 7.62. Clinton wins.
-- 1992: Democrat Bill Clinton, 8.72; Republican George H.W. Bush, 7.89. Clinton wins.
Schmid said she's never come across a perfect 10, but there have been a few people who've gotten close. The highest score she could recall was actor Brad Pitt, with about a 9.3.
She's developing an online version of the program that will let users upload their own photos and tabulate their attractiveness ratings. But it's not something she's ready to try on herself.
"I'd rather not know," she said.
Politics aside, the answer usually boils down to personal taste.
Maybe not. A new computer program from a University of Nebraska Medical Center researcher quantifies physical attractiveness using 29 facial measurements. It tabulates characteristics such as distance between the eyes and length of the ears and nose and issues a score of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most attractive.
In a single matchup, 72-year-old McCain edged out 47-year-old Obama -- 7.27 to 7.24. But an average of 20 head-to-head comparisons using multiple photos put Obama firmly in the lead: He scored 7.0 to McCain's 6.5.
"It's only based on geometry -- that's it," said Kendra Schmid, an assistant professor of biostatistics at the Omaha school. "We didn't include age or eye color or things that obviously go into attractiveness."
A study detailing her program appeared in the August issue of the journal Pattern Recognition.
It works by uploading a photo -- ideally an expressionless mug shot with the mouth closed and the ears showing -- and using the computer mouse to mark the facial measurements.
Those measurements, Schmid said, were devised from neoclassical definitions of beauty, including instructions handed down by Leonardo da Vinci on how to draw the perfect face. She said they hold up well against personal opinions of who's hot and who's not.
But there is a margin of error.
Schmid said the user manually plots the measurements, so it's difficult to hit the same spot on the face every time. She typically rates attractiveness using several photos of the same person and tabulating each photo multiple times, then averages the scores.
Schmid downplayed the idea that attractiveness will play a role in who's sitting in the White House next year.
"I don't think being more attractive can hurt their chances ... but if it has anything to do with who wins, I don't know."
Still, the computer program's average attractiveness score for previous presidential candidates matched the winner in three of the past four races. Here's a rundown:
-- 2004: Democrat John Kerry, 7.94; Republican George W. Bush, 6.86. Bush wins.
-- 2000: Republican George W. Bush, 6.86; Democrat Al Gore, 6.1. Bush wins.
-- 1996: Democrat Bill Clinton, 8.72; Republican Bob Dole, 7.62. Clinton wins.
-- 1992: Democrat Bill Clinton, 8.72; Republican George H.W. Bush, 7.89. Clinton wins.
Schmid said she's never come across a perfect 10, but there have been a few people who've gotten close. The highest score she could recall was actor Brad Pitt, with about a 9.3.
She's developing an online version of the program that will let users upload their own photos and tabulate their attractiveness ratings. But it's not something she's ready to try on herself.
"I'd rather not know," she said.
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