The Influence of Physical Attractiveness of a Plaintiff on the Decisions of Simulated Jurors

Head Over the Heart or Heart Over the Head? Cognitive Experiential Self‐Theory and Extralegal Heuristics in Juror Decision Making1

“…In a meta-analysis, Mazzella and Feingold (1 994) reported that the overall leniency-attractiveness effect of these studies is significant. These effects have occurred in both criminal (Mazzella & Feingold, 1994) and civil trials (Castellow, Wuensch, & Moore, 1990;Kulka & Kessler, 1978;Stephan & Tully, 1977). The consistency of attractiveness-leniency effects might be a result of a halo effect occurring where people are motivated by a "what is beautiful is good" belief (Dion, Berscheid, & Walster, 1972).…”

The Perfect Body: A Potential Pathway of Anorexic Symptom Development in Women

“…Another factor that could potentially influ ence a juror's perception of a defendant and the accompanying verdict is the perceived attractive ness of the defendant. Early research showed that jurors tend to give more lenient verdict decisions to defendants they find physically attractive (Stephan & Tully, 1977), are less confident in their decision of guilt for defendants that are perceived as attrac tive (Efran, 1974), and rate defendants found to be socially unattractive as more guilty (Griffitt & Jackson, 1973). More recent research has also suggested that attractiveness leads to lesser sen tences (e.g., Gunnell & Ceci, 2010).…”

The 2017–2018 Psi Chi Presidential Initiative: Help Helped Me

“…Early research showed that jurors tend to give more lenient verdict decisions to defendants they find physically attractive (Stephan & Tully, 1977), are less confident in their decision of guilt for defendants that are perceived as attrac tive (Efran, 1974), and rate defendants found to be socially unattractive as more guilty (Griffitt & Jackson, 1973). More recent research has also suggested that attractiveness leads to lesser sen tences (e.g., Gunnell & Ceci, 2010).…”