Marketing researcher Chris Kowal has
an unusual way of deciding who wins each U.S. presidential debate this
year. He's using facial recognition technology to capture the emotions
President Barack Obama, presidential candidate Mitt Romney and their
vice president picks show while they debate. Whoever is more open and
expressive appeals to voters more, Kowal
told WLFI, a Lafayette, Ind. news station.
"The
most important part of any type of branding, sales appeal, voter
attraction, whatever you want to look at, is going to be that emotional
connection," Kowal said. He is a professor at Purdue University in West
Lafayette.
Kowal
found that Obama won the second presidential debate on Oct. 16, an
assessment that agrees with many news outlets' conclusions. Compared to
his performance in the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, Obama was
more confident, showed a wider range of emotions and connected with the
audience better, Kowal
told WLFI. The researcher noted the sadness in the president's face when he talked about the shootings in Aurora, Colo.
Romney
showed a more limited range of emotions, but nevertheless displayed
some strong feelings, especially disgust, Kowal told WLFI. The
Republican candidate showed pride when he talked about his governorship
of Massachusetts, Kowal said.
The software Kowal uses
analyzes video clips, tracking the movement of 491 points in people's
faces to identify universal emotions such as happiness, sadness,
disgust, surprise and fear.
Kowal has put his software to work
for all of the debates so far. During the first presidential debate, he
found Romney displayed aggressive, powerful emotions "70 percent of the
time he was speaking to President Obama," he
told WTHR, an Indiana-based NBC affiliate.
Obama,
on the other hand, kept his head down, making it difficult for the
software to track his emotions. "He didn't allow himself to be
expressive," Kowal said.
During the vice presidential debate Oct.
11, Kowal identified aggressive emotions in Vice President Joe Biden
and surprise in Republican candidate Paul Ryan. Nevertheless, Ryan was
likeable throughout the debate, Kowal said.
Kowal didn't identify a vice presidential debate winner for CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin,
who interviewed him.
Instead, he said the debate probably encouraged and motivated decided
voters on both sides without necessarily swaying undecided citizens.
Kowal
will use the data he collects this election season to check his
analyses match how voters really feel, WLFI reported. It should also be
possible to use facial recognition to check when debaters are lying,
Kowal said.