Date of Award

1993

Document Type

Research Paper

Abstract

In a review of 30 different studies the hypotheses was presented that a defendant’s attractiveness will be a determinant in jury decision making. Attractiveness is known to have positive and rewarding factors attributed to it, so it is natural to believe that people might react more positively towards someone who is attractive than someone who is unattractive. The main technique used in the studies to research this phenomenon was the jury simulation technique. While there were a few studies that had negative results, most of the studies reviewed found that the attractiveness of the defendant was a significant factor in jury decision making (for various reasons). An experiment was designed that took into account the suggestions to make further research more realistic by not only having the attractiveness variable, but also having a realistic versus non-realistic situation. In both situations, the defendant was a college student accused of cheating. In the realistic situation the subjects were led to believe that their decision of punishment would directly affect the individual. In the unrealistic situation they were led to believe that they were giving their opinion on an already decided case. The results show significant effects for the realistic variable, with the mean punishment being lower in the realistic situation than in the unrealistic situation. The unattractive defendant in the realistic situation received the lowest mean out of all four situations. No effect was shown between the attractive and unattractive defendant in the unrealistic situation or across all variables.

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