Being attractive can open a few more doors for you in life, but according to a new study, it’s the ugly folks that may get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to crime.
According to research published in Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, ugly individuals may be given the benefit of the doubt in some instances where physical appearance could play a role in the criminal act. For the study, researchers explored a participant’s perception of who committed a “blind date swindle” based on appearances alone. In the study, participants were divided in two groups – one where the judgment had to be made within seconds, and the other where participants could take more time to render an opinion. All participants were presented with a hypothetical scenario of a blind date swindle, and they were told to assess the guilt or innocence of nine male faces based on appearance alone.
Researchers carefully selected faces from the Chicago Face Database that were categorized into three levels of attractiveness: attractive, neutral and unattractive. All faces had consistent and average levels of perceived trustworthiness. Each participant was asked to give their first impression as to whether or not each face looked guilty, and they were asked to rate their certainty on a seven-point scale.
The Ugly Truth
After looking at the data, researchers found that facial attractiveness had a significant effect on guilt judgments. More specifically, participants were more likely to judge unattractive faces as innocent compared to both neutral and attractive faces. They dubbed this finding the “ugly leniency effect,” where less attractive individuals were given the benefit of the doubt. The time pressure did not have any influence on a participant’s opinion, but the face of the suspect did.
“Our results provide valuable insights by demonstrating that, under specific conditions, unattractive faces can reduce guilt perception,” said study co-author Antonio Olivera-La Rosa in an interview with PsyPost. “This evidence could enhance awareness of how implicit bias influences legal decisions, potentially reducing the skepticism many judges express towards such extralegal factors. While the legal system is traditionally grounded in rationality, it is not immune to the influence of facial biases.”
The findings are certainly interesting, but it is important to consider the supposed crime – a blind date swindle. Had the study focused on more common crimes, like DUI, drug crimes or traffic violations, it seems likely that the results would have been much different, especially since we have already talked about how unattractive individuals tended to get longer prison sentences in another study on how attractiveness affects court proceedings.
“The purpose of our study was to gain a deeper insight into the intuitive nature of initial judgments about guilt or innocence,” Olivera-La Rosa explained. “As such, our findings should not be seen as proof that individuals with unattractive (yet moderately trustworthy) faces are necessarily more likely to receive lenient judicial sentences. Indeed, facial bias may be reduced or even diminished during the examination of evidence.”
Hopefully future studies will expand on these findings and explore how attractiveness impacts guilty perception for other more common crimes. For now, although ugly people may end up with longer prison sentences when convicted for more serious crimes, they may benefit from an “ugly leniency effect” should they attempt to dine and dash on a blind date.
Beautiful or ugly, we’ll take your case and do what we can to help you secure a satisfactory result. For more information on how we can assist with your criminal case, or for answers to any questions you may have, reach out to Avery and the team at Appelman Law Firm today at (952) 224-2277.
