I Can Smell Them: People with more extreme political attitudes are better in inferring political affiliation from politicians' faces, regardless whether the politicians and perceivers are from the same or different countries

Interpersonal accuracy in a political context is moderated by the extremity of one's political attitudes. Dominique Muller, Florian Delmas, Michaela Wänke. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Volume 79, November 2018, Pages 95-106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.07.001

Highlights
•    People with more extreme political attitudes are better in inferring political affiliation from politicians´ faces.
•    Extremity can be seen as a facet of attitude strength, but other facets of attitude strength are not related to accuracy.
•    The findings hold regardless whether the politicians and perceivers are from the same or different countries.

Abstract: The political orientation of others can be perceived above chance level from looks alone. However, the effect is usually small and there is considerable interpersonal variance. We propose that the ability to accurately perceive others' political orientation is highest for those who hold more extreme political views themselves, as compared to people with more moderate views. This is because more extreme persons have a higher need to establish clear group boundaries and distinguish between political allies and adversaries. In six studies we investigate the proposed relationship, using participants from three different countries and two different sets of politicians as targets. In line with our hypothesis, attitude extremity was associated with higher accuracy. The robustness of our findings is supported by a small-scale meta-analysis over our studies. An alternative account that attitude strength in general – of which attitude extremity is a sub-facet – would lead to higher accuracy was not supported. Implications and suggestions for future research on interpersonal accuracy are discussed.