Are voters really this shallow?

There's some research that indicates voters will vote based on their preference for the face of a candidate. The researchers blended candidate faces with composite faces so the candidates would not be recognized and got the same results as the actual elections. This was done for US, UK, and New Zealand elections

I'd have to wonder if the morphed faces were truly unrecognizable. If participants in the US were viewing morphed Bush and Kerry faces, there might be a subliminal recognition going on. If participants were viewing candidates from other countries, that would reduce that chance. Now that I think of it, Bush and Kerry might well be known internationally. State or city elections from other countries would seem to have the least chance of being affected by previous recognition.

Here's a link:

http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/185430