My podcasting partner Stacy McCain has a set of principles for How To Get A Million Hits On Your Blog. Rule 5 states:
A. Everybody loves a pretty girl.
B. Mind the MEGO factor.
C. Sex sells.
D. Feminism sucks.
It turns out Rule 5 may apply to how to get a million votes on a ballot. Psypost reports that a group of Danish AI researchers used machine learning to sort photos of Danish politicians.
Results showed that the neural network trained on these data was 61% accurate in predicting ideology based on a facial photograph in both males and females. In other words, the accuracy of the prediction algorithm is better than chance.
Analysis of the facial characteristics that were crucial in making decisions about ideology revealed that masculinity and attractiveness were not linked to ideology in males. However, more attractive females were more likely to be representatives of right-wing parties. Happy faces, both male and female, were also more likely to be representatives of right-wing parties, while faces with neutral expressions were more likely to be left-wing. Although rare, women whose faces showed contempt were more likely to be representatives of left-wing parties.
FWIW, this matches my personal experience in Real Life. For example, Mrs. Hoge was a Republican.