Does shallowness play a role?

myofibril

Yes it does due to something called the Halo Effect.

Whilst people maintain on a conscious level that attractiveness of candidates has no bearing on their decision various studies have shown it does influence their choices:

"The halo effect is the manifestation of the affect heuristic in social psychology. Robert Cialdini, in Influence: Science and Practice, summarizes:

Research has shown that we automatically assign to good-looking individuals such favorable traits as talent, kindness, honesty, and intelligence (for a review of this evidence, see Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991). Furthermore, we make these judgments without being aware that physical attractiveness plays a role in the process. Some consequences of this unconscious assumption that "good-looking equals good" scare me. For example, a study of the 1974 Canadian federal elections found that attractive candidates received more than two and a half times as many votes as unattractive candidates (Efran & Patterson, 1976). Despite such evidence of favoritism toward handsome politicians, follow-up research demonstrated that voters did not realize their bias. In fact, 73 percent of Canadian voters surveyed denied in the strongest possible terms that their votes had been influenced by physical appearance; only 14 percent even allowed for the possibility of such influence (Efran & Patterson, 1976). Voters can deny the impact of attractiveness on electability all they want, but evidence has continued to confirm its troubling presence (Budesheim & DePaola, 1994)."

If you want to get ahead good looks and attractiveness are useful tools. Invest in yourself and others will want to do so as well.

FitJoani

While I think Barack Obama is, by FAR, the most handsome president we've ever had, I would have voted for him regardless. I voted for John Kerry in the first election I could vote in and that guy's funny lookin'. XD

I agree with her.

fiberartist219

I would be reluctant to vote for a person who looked disheveled, but otherwise, it wouldn't matter to me. Just keep it clean, and iron your shirt for TV appearances, and we're good to go.