John McCain blinked a lot at last night’s debate. A whole lot. Which apparently doesn’t bode well for his election chances.
According to a study, Eye movements and U.S. presidential elections, published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology, blinking at debates goes over about as well as three-day old tripe stew.
For eight U.S. presidential elections during the period 1960–2004, the rapid blinker during debates received fewer overall votes than his opponent. In seven of these eight elections, the rapid blinker also lost the electoral vote and was defeated at the polls. Furthermore, in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, seven out of ten presidential aspirants have shown elevated EBRs [eyeblink rates] (over 50 blinks per minute) and have been defeated in their candidacies.
bad news, originally uploaded by pirano.
Here’s a debate topic that was never covered, but I think has some interesting items:
http://www.artsology.com/obama_mccain.php
Thanks, nice rundown.