WASHINGTON - Republican presidential candidate John McCain may not have blinked first in his debates with Barack Obama — but he certainly blinked more often, which is not a good thing.
Candidates who blink more than their opponents in debates tend to lose presidential elections, says Boston College psychology professor J.J. Tecce, and McCain outblinked Obama during the their three debates this fall.
“People are picking up McCain’s rapid blinking and saying, ‘There’s something about him that’s awfully twitchy and nervous and I don’t think I want to vote for that guy,’” said Tecce, who has presented a paper on blinking in debates.
Tecce said rapid blinking is an indicator of negative emotions such as fear, pain or stress. Most people blink 10 to 20 times per minute, a rate that increases to between 30 and 50 times per minute if they’re in front of a television camera.
The Republican McCain, who trails Democrat Obama by 4 to 14 percentage points in most polls, blinked 109 times per minute during the first debate, while Obama blinked 73 times per minute. Tecce said that gap persisted in the next two debates.
Obama has unhelpful tics of his own, such as a tendency to look down at the ground, but voters appear to not pick up on these cues as readily as they do rapid blinking, Tecce said.
The presidential candidate who blinked more than his opponent during debates has lost every election since 1976 — with the exception of 2000 when blink-happy George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Democrat Al Gore but won the White House.
The blinking pattern held during this year’s Democratic primaries. Obama and rival Hillary Clinton each registered about 40 to 50 blinks per minute during Democratic debates, far less than rivals who quickly dropped out of the race.
On the Republican side, McCain was the fastest blinker of the bunch. Ron Paul clocked in at a serene 10 blinks per minute and only Mitt Romney registered in the ideal 40-blinks-per-minute range.
“I think they shot themselves in the foot on body language,” Tecce said.
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Strip Krugman of his Nobel and hand it to Mukund, the genius who has figured out the real problem with our ailing economy!
- Posted by rajI am sure Mr.Obama has spent a lots of money while defeating Ms.Hillary Clinton. That was fought almost like presidential election. He succeeded in beating her. This would not have been possible without money power. Now to beat Mr.McCaine also needs lots & lots of money power which he must be getting through his international connections. This is the reason why Stock market has lost money. Money movement sometimes is difficult to trace. Saying that money was never there is cheating oneself. There is always link between things happening around. Financial powers in USA appear to have united behind Mr.Obama as he appears to be beneficiary of the conditions.
- Posted by MukundThe world needs Barack Obama in this hour of darkness, Bush has wrecked the peoples hope so much and has disillusioned us so much that anyone who resembles like him makes us shudder and John McCain to an extend knows this a little too late and this has shaken his confidence and has contributed to his overblinking and sadly the loss of the white house.
- Posted by Jackson YogarajahOdd how the right tends to calls the left “extremist” in the States.
Truth is, American politics is FAR more right-wing than almost anywhere else in the world. For example, the Democrats are more conservative than the Canadian Conservative party. So for better or for worse, Republicans are actually the true “extreme” right. Democrats don’t even come close to extreme left.
As a side note, stating that democracy absolutely trumps socialism or vice-versa is just silly…every country has different problems of their own. So the ideal government must adjust accordingly.
- Posted by Katie