Research has shown that attractive individuals are viewed more favorably than unattractive counterparts across different types of criminal trials, contributing to the belief that “what is beautiful is good” (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972). However, this research has not been replicated in cases involving sexually coercive tactics. In the present experiment, participants read a case file that included one of two (attractive or unattractive) digitally altered photographs of a defendant and one of two vignettes (physical or verbal coercion). They then completed a questionnaire about the case. The results indicated that more women than men found the defendant guilty, and jurors assigned significantly longer sentences to the defendant in the physical tactic condition than in the verbal tactic condition. In contrast to two of the hypotheses, the more attractive defendant was evaluated more harshly than the unattractive defendant and an interaction between attractiveness and tactic was not found. / Department of Psychological Science
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:123456789/196143 |
| Date | 21 July 2012 |
| Creators | Kulig, Teresa C. |
| Contributors | Pickel, Kerri L. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
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