The present study was conducted in order to determine if the amount of justification for a crime and the physical attractiveness of a defendant would influence the severity of sentence imposed on the defendant by subjects who were asked to act as jurors. Subjects were 240 male and female undergraduate students who volunteered from introductory psychology classes. Forty subjects were assigned to each of six treatment conditions produced by three levels of attractiveness: attractive, unattractive, and no-picture; and by the two levels of justification: high and low. Subjects read a short vignette of a crime and were asked to determine a length of sentence. Additional, related ratings were also made. Those defendants in the high justification condition were handed less severe sentences than those in the low justification condition. However, the results did not support the second hypothesis which stated that the attractive defendant would be sentenced to fewer years imprisonment than would the unattractive defendant. The final hypothesis predicted that there would be an interaction between the attractiveness and justification variables, i.e., that the attractive defendant would be punished less severely than the unattractive defendant when justification for committing the crime was low, and for the high justification condition, the effect of the attractiveness would be attenuated. Results did not support this hypothesis. However, related findings provided by the additional scales yielded data which could be interpreted as indirect support for the main hypotheses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181995 |
| Date | January 1979 |
| Creators | Mielski, Alina Eve |
| Contributors | Poland, Elizabeth |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | 36 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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