Natural Observations of the Links between Attractiveness and Initial Legal Judgments

Downs, A. Chris; Lyons, Phillip M.

doi:10.1177/0146167291175009

Cited by 97 publications

(64 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The impact of trustworthiness, discovered here, was found to have considerable implications for decisions of defendant culpability over and above that associated with the well-documented 'what is beautiful is good' (and honest) phenomenon (Downs & Lyons, 1991). Given that the impact of attractiveness (among other potentially related facial features) was considered as a covariate during statistical analyses, it appears that trustworthiness holds unique biasing effects in the courtroom.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Reflecting the impact of attractiveness on impression formation and the 'what is beautiful is good' phenomenon (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972), attractive defendants are more likely to be found not guilty, dealt shorter sentences, and considered less dangerous than their unattractive counterparts (e.g. Bull & Rumsey, 1988;Downs & Lyons, 1991;Esses & Webster, 1988). Similarly, particular faces are viewed as being congruent with certain criminal offences.…”

Section: Dangerous Decisions In the Courtroommentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dangerous decisions: the impact of first impressions of trustworthiness on the evaluation of legal evidence and defendant culpability

Porter

Brinke

Gustaw

2010

Psychology, Crime & Law

154

124

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There is little support for the long-standing assumption that judges and jurors can accurately assess credibility. According to Dangerous Decisions Theory (DDT; Porter & ten Brinke, Legal and Criminological Psychology, 14, 119Á134, 2009), intuitive evaluations of trustworthiness based on the face may strongly bias the interpretation of subsequent information about a target. In a courtroom setting, the assessment of evidence provided by or concerning a defendant may be fundamentally flawed if its interpretation is influenced by an initial, spontaneous assessment of trustworthiness. In an empirical test of DDT, participants were presented with two vignettes describing major or minor crimes, accompanied by a photograph of the supposed defendant, previously rated as highly trustworthy or untrustworthy in appearance. Participants evaluated culpability following the presentation of evidence in each case. Participants required less evidence to arrive at a guilty verdict and were more confident in this decision for untrustworthyappearing defendants. The current evidence supports DDT and has implications for legal decision-making practices.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Dangerous Decisions In the Courtroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Dangerous decisions: the impact of first impressions of trustworthiness on the evaluation of legal evidence and defendant culpability

Porter

Brinke

Gustaw

2010

Psychology, Crime & Law

154

124

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Attractiveness reflects health in both sexes and fertility in women (18), making more attractive people more valuable as sexual partners, mates, and allies (all else equal). Indeed, it is widely documented that more weight is placed on the welfare of attractive people: They are paid more (19), are more likely to be hired for managerial positions (20), are more likely to be elected to public office (21), are given lighter sentences (22,23), and are viewed more favorably (24). Attractive people should, *The welfare weighting function should generate a relationship-specific vector-the WTR function-that, for each absolute magnitude of sacrifice potentially made by the actor, produces a WTR-a variable that defines the ratio of the weights placed on the welfare of the actor versus the target, in determining as a decision-making threshold the maximum sacrifice the actor will make for the target.…”

Section: Engineering Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Formidability and the logic of human anger

Sell

Tooby

Cosmides

2009

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

687

677

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Eleven predictions derived from the recalibrational theory of anger were tested. This theory proposes that anger is produced by a neurocognitive program engineered by natural selection to use bargaining tactics to resolve conflicts of interest in favor of the angry individual. The program is designed to orchestrate two interpersonal negotiating tactics (conditionally inflicting costs or conditionally withholding benefits) to incentivize the target of the anger to place greater weight on the welfare of the angry individual. Individuals with enhanced abilities to inflict costs (e.g., stronger individuals) or to confer benefits (e.g., attractive individuals) have a better bargaining position in conflicts; hence, it was predicted that such individuals will be more prone to anger, prevail more in conflicts of interest, and consider themselves entitled to better treatment. These predictions were confirmed. Consistent with an evolutionary analysis, the effect of strength on anger was greater for men and the effect of attractiveness on anger was greater for women. Also as predicted, stronger men had a greater history of fighting than weaker men, and more strongly endorsed the efficacy of force to resolve conflicts-both in interpersonal and international conflicts. The fact that stronger men favored greater use of military force in international conflicts provides evidence that the internal logic of the anger program reflects the ancestral payoffs characteristic of a small-scale social world rather than rational assessments of modern payoffs in large populations.aggression ͉ evolutionary psychology ͉ recalibrational theory ͉ welfare tradeoff ratio A nger is part of the basic biology of the human species. It spontaneously appears in infancy (1, 2), is effectively universal in its distribution across cultures and individuals (3, 4), and has a species-typical neural basis (5). To understand the evolutionary biology of anger, however, it is also important to characterize its evolved function-that is, what (if anything) was anger engineered by natural selection to accomplish? A recent model-the recalibrational theory of anger-hypothesizes that the regulatory program governing anger evolved in the service of bargaining, to resolve conflicts of interest in favor of the angry individual (6, 7). More precisely, the function of anger is to orchestrate behavior in the angry individual that creates incentives in the target of the anger to recalibrate upwards the weight he or she puts on the welfare of the angry individual. Here, we report empirical tests of 11 predictions derived from this model. Engineering AnalysisAnger, Welfare Tradeoff Ratios (WTRs), and Bargaining. In social species, actions undertaken by one individual commonly have impacts on the welfare of others (measured in fitness, or in other currencies). Consequently, neurocognitive programs in social species should have been designed by selection to solve the following computational adaptive problem: For a given choice set involving self and other, how much weight shou...

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“…There are other consequences, too; for example, attractiveness can influence judgments about the seriousness of committed crimes, with attractive individuals being perceived as less culpable of violent crimes (Sigall and Ostrove, 1975). This effect is seen outside the laboratory in studies showing that attractive individuals pay lower bail (Downs and Lyons, 1991).…”

Section: Attractivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution, Appearance, and Occupational Success

Little

Roberts

2012

Evol Psychol

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Visual characteristics, including facial appearance, are thought to play an important role in a variety of judgments and decisions that have real occupational outcomes in many settings. Indeed, there is growing evidence suggesting that appearance influences hiring decisions and even election results. For example, attractive individuals are more likely to be hired, taller men earn more, and the facial appearance of candidates has been linked to real election outcomes. In this article, we review evidence linking physical appearance to occupational success and evaluate the hypothesis that appearance based biases are consistent with predictions based on evolutionary theories of coalition formation and leadership choice. We discuss why appearance based effects are so pervasive, addressing ideas about a "kernel of truth" in attributions and about coalitional psychology. We additionally highlight that appearance may be differently related to success at work according to the types of job or task involved. For example, leaders may be chosen because the characteristics they possess are seen as best suited to lead in particular situations. During a time of war, a dominant-appearing leader may inspire confidence and intimidate enemies while during peace-time, when negotiation and diplomacy are needed, interpersonal skills may outweigh the value of a dominant leader. In line with these ideas, masculine-faced leaders are favored in war-time scenarios while feminine-faced leaders are favored in peace-time scenarios. We suggest that such environment or task specific competencies may be prevalent during selection processes, whereby individuals whose appearance best matches perceived task competences are most likely selected, and propose the general term "task-congruent selection" to describe these effects. Overall, our review highlights how potentially adaptive biases could influence choices in the work place. With respect to certain biases, understanding their origin and current prevalence is important in order to potentially reduce discrimination in the work place.

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Natural Observations of the Links between Attractiveness and Initial Legal Judgments

Cited by 97 publications

References 20 publications

Dangerous decisions: the impact of first impressions of trustworthiness on the evaluation of legal evidence and defendant culpability

Dangerous decisions: the impact of first impressions of trustworthiness on the evaluation of legal evidence and defendant culpability

Formidability and the logic of human anger

Evolution, Appearance, and Occupational Success

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