Valence Advantage, Pt. 2: Mitt Romney

In the previous post, I told you about my exchange with an academic at UCLA who studied candidate attractiveness. Well, it turns out that when you mention Massachusetts to people who study candidate attractiveness, their minds turn to one thing: the beautiful man with the perfect hair, Mitt Romney himself.

Although the study did not include gubernatorial candidates, Romney was entered into the database by virtue of his 1994 campaign for Senate. And -- duh! -- he turns out to be "among the highest rated politicians in facial quality."

In fact, gushed lead author Matthew Atkinson in his email to me, "of the hundreds of candidates in our analysis," only one scored higher than Romney.

And wouldn't you know it, that one is a likely competitor for the Mittster's 2012 GOP Presidential nomination: John Thune of South Dakota.

I have to think that Romney's going to be steamed that there's a better-looking candidate than him. An empirically, quantifiably better-looking candidate. Ouch!