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AP file
The strong resemblance of Kim Jong Un (right) to his popular grandfather Kim Il Sung (left) may be subliminally creating warm feelings among his followers.
Photographs show he has his grandfather’s double chin and dark eyebrows, and his haircut supposedly is a throwback to the older man’s style in the 1940s. Some reports speculate that Kim Jong Un has even undergone plastic surgery to make him look more like his popular grandfather, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, and less like his father, Kim Jong Il, who was not as well-liked.
Whether the resemblance to his grandfather has been inherited and/or surgically enhanced, it sure can’t hurt Kim Jong-Un, his late father’s handpicked successor to lead North Korea, psychologist Robert Bornstein says. He'll likely benefit from the experience many of us have had of feeling warmly toward a person we’ve just met simply because they resemble someone we like.
“We tend to prefer things that seem familiar over the things that seem unfamiliar, all other things being equal,” says Bornstein, a psychology professor at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y. “People will prefer a familiar-looking face over one that is less familiar.”
Psychologists call this phenomenon “the mere-exposure effect,” as in the mere exposure to someone or something leads to liking him or it. “It’s actually very powerful,” says Bornstein, who’s been studying the mere-exposure effect ever since he wrote his dissertation on it in the 1980s.
There are 300 to 400 studies in the scientific literature about the phenomenon, mostly having to do with visual and auditory--“things like voices, accents, the cadence of a person’s voice”--characteristics. “If it rings a bell, then we do have this initial reflexive response to it,” Bornstein says.
In other words, when it comes to North Korea dictators, like grandfather, like grandson.
But can familiarity breed contempt as well as warm fuzzies? Maybe, Bornstein says, although there haven’t been nearly as many studies of that question. But some research suggests that if you meet someone who reminds you of, say, a hated boss, “you have sort of a negative gut reaction to them,” Bornstein says, “and it can be hard to overcome, partly because gut reactions are so powerful.”
Have you had a rush of affection for a stranger just because they look like someone you care about? Tell us on Facebook.
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Well, the obvious difference is that the man on the left looks tanned and healthy. He looks robust, confident, and capable, AND he's smiling.
The boy on the right looks like he was raised in a pickle barrel.
And do you have a problem with pickles? I'll have you know some of my best friends were raised in a pickle barrel.
He is also quite heavy in a country where most people don't get enough to eat. They need creal change over there, that family won't do anything for them there. Hmm, hereditary monarchy in a "Communist" country?
David: I've often noticed that in any country that begins with the prefix "The People's Republic of"...the leaders of those countries almost always have a far higher standard of living, and have access to products they purposely deny the very people they claim to represent. Funny how that works.
Well, maybe it's just babyfat.
His looks might help his popularity? He likes like about the same as ohhh maybe 1,000,000 or more other Koreans........Yeah, it will make it easy for him to hire decoys when the CIA sends one of there 'little friend's ' to pay a visit to him............
that young'un...is korean kool...
Looks more like a hard boiled egg with facial features and hair on top to me
A face only a mother could love...
has we say in the south ...that's one ugly young'un...
I look at that double chinned dumb educated, but arrogant sub-mammal that will follow that same path to starving his own nation, as did his father and his grandfather--I see a kid that wants to keep status quo. I hope the people of every single nation awake and hold their government accountable starting with the lad. He's a Mao wannabe.
If Kim has some resemblance, and good looks, he sure has a "blank" look on his face, like he's not all quite there--
Highly intelligent people do not have this look. "Engaging, bright, eyes".
The N. Koreans are in for further torture from their Government. It's in the eyes, the window to one's soul. (Not Seoul)!
Actually I think he looks a bit like the Stay Puft Marshmallow man
Of course he resembles his grandfather. As a matter of fact, it seems in North Korea everybody resembles everybody else. I suppose the fact that in North Korea everybody seems to have the same fashion sense and goes to the same barber has something to do with it. Meanwhile, the starving people are forced to eat grass.
What a dreary place.
Sbignewski
The boy on the right looks like he was raised in a pickle barrel.
========
...........Ummm, basically, he was!
He reminds of Jake, the pudgy, not too bright kid, on Two and a Half Men, and that is disturbing. I can't help but imagine that when he speaks to the adoring throngs from his official state balcony, you can hear a voice behind him saying: "Pay no attention to the man behind the screen".
Aggie-345886
A face only a mother could love...
=====
....Not my mother, she was very critical of peoples' looks and blunt in expressing her opinions about them, e.g., if she met a woman with an ugly baby, she'd be prone to asking what happened to it, I think she was the inspiration for Marie on "Everyone Loves Rammond", and no, I never asked her what she thought of me.
Maybe I'm the only one who can see it, but he looks like an Asian version of Eric Cartman from South Park to me.
With the rank of four star general and perhaps having control of North Korea's nuclear arsenal, this kid packs a mean punch. I don't think the "warm fuzzies" apply to this guy at all. Imagine having him over to your place for brats and beer...
This has got to be one of the most ridiculous ideas I've heard of. People like a familiar-looking dictator?? What? Look at dictator photo galleries, they are often not the most common faces.
George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush?
Yes....I can imagine his pudgy face looks great to a starving North Korean and the picture comparison is faint at best. Whether people like him or not will be hard to say....considering you don't dare speak against him there.
I don't believe that a country on the brink of starvation will look upon that lil plump face and think too highly of their new "leader".
What do you mean you stop serving breakfast at 10:30?!
Eat the rich dictator. Plenty to go around.
More likely, his minions would be sizing him up for a drumstick.
The modern liberal media is just falling over this totalitarian Marxist despot fawning on him every chance they get. Birds of a feather flock together.
Paleoconservatist, get a clue. There is no "liberal media". Please do some research..........who owns the companies that you are referring to as the "liberal media"? The sooner everyone figures this out, the better.
It's all a sham.
Stock those arsenals, stockpile the food and ammo and............Let's Rumble!!
@!$%#, we need another war to keep us warm. Strike while the iron is hot!
Paleoconservatist, you shouldn't have stopped taking your meds. You're becoming delusional again.
As usual pukey MSNBC kissing up to our enemies and loving the socialist way.
Don't like socialism? Don't drive!
Hey Lanche, don't like MSNBC? Try another newspage and shut up!
Or, Lanche, you could get a clue. Please see Comment 6.1 above.
Seeing how the might makes right mentality has help destroy every nation that employed it, maybe it's about time we talked with our mouths and not with our weapons.
I guess you could ride a missile there while waving a cowboy hat.
Let's see . . . MS = Microsoft. MSNBC = the default home page of every computer ever made running an MS Windows OS.
I'd say most of you were dumped here by the thieving leftist queers at MS (and their greedy lawyers) who stole their monopoly from IBM after pretending to be an OEM manufacturer for the Big Blue Pinstriped Giant, and you're all just too lazy to think for yourselves. Every time you open this reeking wastepipe you see a story about J-Blow's latest hair-do, another list of 10 things a "man" might not really be thinking as you primp at your mirror, and OMGosh did you SEE what SHE was WEARING??!!! Fascinating stuff, if you've got nothing better to do and hardly a brain cell to do it with.
Does this describe you, Rich? Too stupid to change the page? You agree with all that is said in this cesspool because you're just a "go-along" guy, is that it?
I'm here because I KNOW that this is the default mikeysoft socialist propaganda window (which is so completely bizarre and hypocritical given the militantly selfish lawsuit-happy patent-the-word-"word" mindset of that gang of pirates) and it NEEDS a counterweight--something like a wrecking ball comes to mind, but that likely couldn't get their greedy fist from around our throats anyway, and the collateral damage would be inexcuseable. Surely Microsoft couldn't have gotten this far without hiring even ONE righteous person. So I make my voice heard here instead and leave the wrecking ball part of things to God.
No telling who has bought and paid for MS most recently. The profits in China, the world's second-most oppressive totalitarian censor, were just too irresistable, so we know they are in THAT pocket. And we also know that North Korea is China's mindless Pavlovian attack dog. China needs that rabid cur-dog gang at its heels if only to appear sane to the rest of the world by comparison. Thus, yeah, it could be. It just could be. MSNBC and the Worker's Paradise public relations team working in concert to try to make people forget that this is a butcher's butcher who kicks little children into the wastewater pond just to watch them drown.
Maybe it's you who should shut up, Rich.
up yours rightE
Rumour has it SNL will produce a skit portraying the "Honorable Leader" next month. Who would be good to play Kim's character...any suggestions? Perhaps Kim himself will take the stage and say..."live from New York, its Saturday night!" (뉴욕에서 사는 것은 토요일 밤)
chaz bono... seem's a popular choice...
Plain bob, that is funny!!!! I thought something looked familiar about this Kim Dong Um.. and I was immediately drawn to her...eh, him...uhhhh, it.
Plain bob always manages to make me laugh. :)
LMAO Big time.
Just another fat pdugy-faced little dictator in the making who will no doubt try to exceed his fathers' and grandfather's body count in both the North and South, expand the trade of nuclear technology and biological warfare expertise to Iran and other places that would like to erase the USA off the face of the earth, and continue North Korea's role of being the lap-dog of the Chinese who like to keep us emeshed militarily in South Korea and wondering when f— _ks like this will start WW3. As for Paris S comments on familiar looing dicator's, break out a history book and put photos of Mao, Pol Pot, Kim Il Sung, Ki Jong Il, Mussolini, and Kim Jong Un next to each other. For color variation, add Idi Amin. They could all be mistaken for being in the same family are some of the worst dicators the world has ever known. As far as MSNBC, doe ANYONE take them seriously any more?
Maybe we don't take them "seriously", but here we all are, commenting about a story on their website ...
hey jp like fox news tells the truth.
<barf>
Thought the guy on the right was Chaz Bono !!
Please not while I'm eating - Thought I'd choke on that one !
He looks like a puppy that is constipated !! He does need to date Chaz, because Chaz will control him !!
He looks like a pudgy boy to me. I don't give a @!$%# what he looks like, its his actions that count. Now would be a great time to unite the two Korea's. Seen from space, North Korea is black at night, like it lives in the dark ages. A unification would greatly relieve the tension everywhere on the Globe. Only in the Middle East is there no hope for peace, as their crazy culture can only be stopped if someone drops the big Match on them. Lets hope this pudgy boy has a sense of Democracy, if he doesn't, it will just be more of the same. People living in poverty on one end of Korea, and people living in the 21st Century on the South end.
Do you supose there is a reason the north is black??? They have no lights and ARE in the dark ages. Shine em a lil ol nuk on em to light their way!
Do you believe in Santa too? Although your ideas are ideal, they are not realistic. Sadly the son of an elder dictator has energy, libido, strength and the need to prove he's the bigger dog, with the bigger Bick..
He is most definitely going to be more cruel and less predictable, and will end up killing more people and shooting off more missles......after all with the way he looks and his size......he has to prove a missle, one way or another.
He disgusts me. I see him as the one who will really cause chaos and perhaps a major, if not a World war in a short time.
Now Pratt, you try to talk to him, and reason with him: but this is a spoilt brat that probably got a prostitute for his 13th B-day, and a tortured killing of the common person of his choice for his 16th. This is really bad......I do not see him visiting children's hospitals. I see him cutting their electricity.
No s&it?
Ridiculous. Kim, the elder, is responsible for thousands, if not millions, of deaths. Fatboy Kim is heir to a murderous regime we should have wiped of the face of the earth DECADES ago, when we had the chance.
Kim's looks may aid popularity
Here I thought this was about Kim Kardashian. I assumed she is popular because she is such a big tramp.
They are nearly the same age, and she likes 'em rich, and apparently he has just inherited most of what little there is in that God-forsaken country. If she can get over being the taller one, I see another big hit coming -- Keeping Up with the Kims. Should be good for at least 73 days!
THAT WAS HYSTERICAL!!!!! I, at first thought the article was about her as well, gaining her come back after bashing her mentally retarded actor/husband for the show!
That's who I thought the headline was about too! I never gave a thought to Ummmm!
Well...I hate to admit it but so did I and just couldn't imagine what the reference was about, curiosity got the best of me and I got hit in the face with those two ugly mugs and now read that sonny boy is supposed to generate warm and fuzzy feelings??? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Rlquall at 17.2, best post on here. A riot. Post 11 kind've summed things up nicely with one word. The hilarious posts with the subject made this one worth it.
I love how all the dictators are fat, while their people are skinny, sickly and dying of hunger!
Some how I doubt the people care about which dictator he looks like, he is a dictator!
Yes Kim J U sure has double chin, fat and have higher standard of living in the palace. He has a chef to cook high nutrious food, maids to wash and iron his clothes, clean the palace. contrary to the grass eating citizen. Let see if he will eat grass too like most North Koreas. In all communist ruled countries past and present the rulling group have more privileges and the citizen suffers. There are pretty much brown noser in North Korea from the media the kissing up to fatboi to safe their own neck and gain more privilege. You all will hear more propangandas about his " accomplishment in battles"why he became an untested general, guidance in their "sacred mountain" while being a puppet under his relatives strings
It would be nice if this kid turned out to be the polar opposite of his father, and decided to embrace the outside world and North Korea's future within it. I know it's far-fetched, but he is still young enough to be swayed.
Hey, look on the bright side. Fatboy's father died at a comparatively young age, 69. That's what happens when you go to your own government-run hospital.
He did not die at the hospital. I would be very surprised if he would go to a state run hospital, not his style.
Dam, I thought this post was about a Kardashian......
King Kong, ummm.. Kim Jong Ul appears as if he was photographed just after beating Joey Chestnut, in NY's famous Nathan's hotdog eating contst. And this fatso is known to enjoy American food.
sickandtiredofit-3820065 ... I too thought that the news was about Kim Kardashian, bet all the responding suckers showed immediate interest under this cunning headliner.
He looks soft, like a pudgy little doe-boy. I bet if you poked him in the chest he would cry.
I bet if you tried that, the only part of you coming back, would be your finger.
To think that they could well be stuck with looking at that face for the next 45 to 50 years. That could mean another 45 or 50 years of a starvation diet and almost a century behind the rest of the world in most everything.
With his weight issues, I don't think he will live another 45 to 50 years. He's only in his 20's and carrying all that weight! He won't be able to get off the sofa in another 10 years and they will have to use a crane to get him out of his bed when he dies. You've seen the movie, right???
Who gives a damn about his father or grandfather. When is every one in the world going to get over this king stuff. I find it hard to believe that there are still people in the world who need this crap. If he's good or bad it won't have anything to do with his ancestry.