“What appearance-influenced voters are doing is substituting a hard decision with an easy one. Finding out whether a politician is truly competent is an effortful and time-demanding task. Deciding whether a politician looks competent is an extremely easy task.” We spend a lot of time obsessing over political news. But for a significant percentage of voters, making a decision about who to back takes as little as a tenth of a second. From Aeon: First impressions count.