Oh Gaud: Voters Make Quick, Shallow Decisions, Study Suggests

Just when I thought that the American electorate was becoming much wiser in their political thinking this article comes along. Here's the scary opening paragraph:

"Previous research hints that voters go for the most competent candidates, but the new analysis reveals people can forge steadfast opinions simply by glancing at a candidate's picture. The study highlights some of the shallow behaviors of a sizable chunk of the voting population, said co-author Alexander Todorov, a psychologist at Princeton University."

And then there is this follow-up from one of the authors of the study: "We're seeing that snap judgments play a bigger role in voting than we thought."

Gaud. We're doomed!