Appearance a weighty matter for candidates

NEW YORK, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- Americans consider heavy male political candidates more honest and reliable than thin ones, but thin still wins for female candidates, a study shows.

"A candidate's physical appearance plays a greater role in evaluation than we have thought in the past," Dr. Elizabeth Miller, the study's co-author, told the New York Daily News. "We assume voters only pay attention to things like issue position, but to think that they don't pay attention to physical appearance is a bit naive," added Miller, a political scientist at the University of Missouri.

For her study, Miller divided 120 volunteers into four groups. Each group got photos and descriptions of four phony candidates who had the same gender and body type: obese male, skinny male, obese female, skinny female.

Each candidate's views differed within each group. The subjects rated candidates based on criteria including ability to perform and honesty.

Skinny males were viewed 6 percent less positively than overweight males while skinny women were viewed 5 percent more positively than overweight women, the study found.

Overall, obese female candidates were viewed 10 percent less favorably than obese males.