Do you know what “competence” looks like? Try this quiz, based on Professor Alexander Todorov’s 2005 experiment, to learn what your impressions predict.
You'll see pictures of two people. As quickly as you can, select the person you think looks more competent (efficient, capable, talented).
0 of the people you chose became a U.S. Senator or Governor.
The faces you just saw were opposing candidates in various U.S. congressional elections between 2000-2004. When hundreds of people were asked to do a longer version of this task, Alexander Todorov at Princeton University found that their answers predicted the winner of the election about 70% of the time.
Here’s why this should worry us: how competent someone looks doesn’t tell you how competent they actually are.
