Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-5nwft Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-08T01:24:41.250Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Physiognomic Similarity and Political Cooperation: An Exploratory Investigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Adolf Heschl
Adolf Heschl*
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Austria

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Cooperation between politicians is often explained primarily by applying utilitarian concepts to coalition-building behavior. Usually, some direct or indirect advantage is held to be the main motive for cooperation, especially among those who are otherwise competitors. Drawing on sociobiological theory, this study presents an alternative approach in which truly altruistic motives may underlie and influence, as a biosocial substrate, even modern politics. This approach suggests that phenotypic similarities among individual politicians may play a role in the formation and stability of political alliances. To examine this hypothesis, physiognomic comparisons were made of the 65 delegates who gave speeches at the Nineteenth All-Soviet Party Congress of the Communist Party of the USSR, held in Moscow in 1988. The association between physiognomic similarity and expressions of verbal support was analyzed to test the hypothesis. Results suggest that speakers with faces more closely resembling that of the secretary-general were more likely to express verbal support for his policies than were others.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , February 1993 , pp. 61 - 68
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

References

Alexander, R.D. (1974). “The Evolution of Social Behavior.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 5:325–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, R.D. (1979). Darwinism and Human Affairs. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Barash, D.P. (1982). Sociobiology and Behavior. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Bateson, P.P.G., ed. (1982). Mate Choice. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Bateson, P.P.G. et al. (1980). “Similarities between the Faces of Parents and Offspring in Bewick's Swan and the Differences between Mates.” Journal of Zoology, London 191:61–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaustein, A.R. (1983). “Kin Recognition Mechanisms: Phenotypic Matching or Recognition Alleles.” The American Naturalist 121:749–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, D.T. (1965). “Ethnocentric and Other Altruistic Motives.” In Levine, D. (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation. Vol. 13. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Chapais, B. (1992). “The Role of Alliances in Social Inheritance of Rank among Female Primates.” In Harcourt, A.H. and de Waal, F.B.M. (eds.), Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cheney, D.L. and Seyfarth, R.M. (1990). How Monkeys See the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunbar, R.I.M. (1988). Primate Social Systems. London: Croom Helm.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Essock-Vitale, S.M. and McGuire, M.T. (1980). “Predictions Derived from the Theories of Kin Selection and Reciprocation Assessed by Anthropological Data.” Ethology and Sociobiology 1:233–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Getz, W.M. and Smith, K.B. (1983). “Genetic Kin Recognition: Honey Bees Discriminate Between Full and Half Sisters.” Nature 302:147–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldmeier, E. (1972). “Similarity in Visually Perceived Forms.” Psychological Issues 8:1–136.Google Scholar
Goldstein, A.J., Harmon, L.D., and Lesk, A.B. (1971). “Identification of Human Faces.” Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 59(5):748–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grafen, A. (1991). “Modelling in Behavioural Ecology.” In Krebs, J.R. and Davies, N.B. (eds.), Behavioural Ecology. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Graziano, W. (1984). “A Developmental Approach to Social Exchange Processes.” In Masters, S.C. and Yarkin-Levin, K. (eds.), Boundary Areas in Social and Developmental Psychology. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hamilton, W.D. (1964). “The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour.” Journal of Theoretical Biology 7:1–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harcourt, A.H. (1992). “Coalitions and Alliances: Are Primates More Complex Than Non-Primates?” In Harcourt, A.H. and de Waal, F.B.M. (eds.), Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Harmon, L.D. (1973). “The Recognition of Faces.” Scientific American 229(5):70–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hepper, P.G. (1983). “Sibling Recognition in the Rat.” Animal Behavior 31:1177–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinde, R.A. (1979). Towards Understanding Relationships. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Holmes, W. and Sherman, P.W. (1983). “Kin Recognition in Animals.” American Scientist 71:46–55.Google Scholar
Hull, C.L. (1952). A Behavior System. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jäckle, H. et al. (1989). “Musterbildung bei Drosophila.” Naturwissenschaften 76:512–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawrence, P.A. (1992). The Making of a Fly. The Genetics of Animal Design. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.Google Scholar
Lorenz, K. (1973). Die Rückseite des Spiegels. Versuch einer Naturgeschichte menschlichen Erkennens. München: Piper.Google Scholar
Mascie-Taylor, C.G.N. (1989). “Spouse Similarity for IQ and Personality and Convergence.” Behavior Genetics 19(2):223–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mascie-Taylor, C.G.N. and Boyce, A.J., eds. (1988). Human Mating Patterns. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Masters, R. (1989). The Nature of Politics. Yale: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noe, R. (1992). “Alliance Formation among Male Baboons: Shopping for Profitable Partners.” In Harcourt, A.H. and de Waal, F.B.M. (eds.), Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Portisch, H. (1991). Hört die Signale: Aufstieg und Fall des Sowjetkommunismus. Wien: Kremayr and Scheriau.Google Scholar
Rolls, E.T. (1981). “Processing beyond the Inferior Temporal Visual Cortex Related to Feeding, Memory, and Striatal Function.” In Katsuki, Y., Norgren, R., and Sato, M. (eds.), Brain Mechanisms of Sensation. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Rolls, E.T. (1986). “Information Representation, Processing, and Storage in the Brain: Analysis at the Single Neuron Level.” In Changeux, J.P. and Konishi, M. (eds.), Neural and Molecular Mechanisms of Learning. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Siegl, E. (1991). “Wo ist Pugos Leiche? Mysteriöse Todesfälle im Gefolge des Putschversuches.” Profil 43:88–89.Google Scholar
Silk, J.B. (1982). “Altruism among Female Macaca Radiata: Explanations and Analysis of Patterns of Grooming and Coalition Formation.” Behaviour 79:162–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trivers, R.L. (1971). “The Evolution of Reciprocal Altruism.” Quarterly Review of Biology 46:35–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trivers, R.L. (1985). Social Evolution. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings.Google Scholar
Turner, J.C. (1982). “Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation.” In Colman, A. (ed.), Cooperation and Competition in Humans and Animals. Berkshire (UK): Van Nostrand Reinhold.Google Scholar
van den Berghe, P.L. (1981). The Ethnic Phenomenon. New York: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Willhoite, F.H. (1977). “Evolution and Collective Intolerance.” Journal of Politics 39:667–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zabel, C.J., Glickman, S.E., Frank, L.G., Woodmansee, K.B., and Kappel, G. (1992). “Coalition Formation in a Colony of Prepubertal Spotted Hyaenas.” In Harcourt, A.H. and de Waal, F.B.M. (eds.), Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar