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Study Finds Swiss Lawmakers' Looks Don't Influence Corporate Ties

7/8/2026

Summary

Story summary

A study of 69 Swiss Council of States members found that attractiveness did not affect legislators’ corporate ties.
Researchers used 147 Australian raters to score 2013-2014 official portraits on a seven-point scale, adjusting for rater bias.
Data, enabled by Swiss law’s mandatory disclosure of board, advisory and lobbying roles, showed no link between beauty scores and either interest-group connections or voter-congruence with referendum outcomes.

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Story summary

A study of 69 Swiss Council of States members found that attractiveness did not affect legislators’ corporate ties.
Researchers used 147 Australian raters to score 2013-2014 official portraits on a seven-point scale, adjusting for rater bias.
Data, enabled by Swiss law’s mandatory disclosure of board, advisory and lobbying roles, showed no link between beauty scores and either interest-group connections or voter-congruence with referendum outcomes.