The study that the researchers are going to imitate is from a study conducted by (Sigall & Ostrove, 1975). In their experiment their hypothesis stated that more attractive people will receive less time sentenced in jail. This study and the theory that it is based upon all support our research hypothesis. Another study which supports the prediction in the research hypothesis is a study done by (John Stewart III, 1980). In his observational study he studied the amount of time an attractive person was sentenced and the time that a less attractive person was sentenced. In his study he concluded that the more attractive defendant had a short length of sentence. The study done by (Benson, Karabenick, and Lerner, 1976) also support the fact that physical attractiveness has distinct advantages over the less attractive. In their study they left filled in college application in phone booths with either an attractive picture or an unattractive picture. At the end of the study they concluded that more attractive people had a higher percentages rate in the amount of applications returned to them. This clearly shows that more attractive people receive more help.
The issue that was investigated deal with the halo effect and how it affects human behavior. The researcher believed that people who are considered to be more attractive receive advantages in juridical judgment over the less attractive. This topic is important to understand so people can have a better understanding when judging people. Justification must be brought to make sure that every individual must be tried equally in a court. This issue was investigated by conducting a study on high school students in their junior year. They were asked to determine how many years the defendant should be sentenced to prison. Two identical cases were matched with either an attractive person or an unattractive person. The results from the experiment should provide the support for the research hypothesis.
After reading the results of the studies done by previous psychologists the researcher has predicted that defendants that are less attractive will receive longer sentences to jail compared to the more attractive.
Research Hypothesis:
Defendants who are rated as more attractive receive a lighter sentence than those who are rated as less attractive.
Null Hypothesis:
There will be no significant difference in the years sentenced to the attractive and unattractive woman.
Method
Design:
The experimental method was used and the design was based on independent samples. The reason the experimental method was chosen is because this will provide more accurate and reliable results. The experimental method is also easier to carry out. Independent sample was chosen because it will provide the most accurate results for the experiment. A mathematical mean is easier to obtain by averaging the results from independent samples. Ethical considerations such as giving informed consent, the right to withdrawal, debriefing, and also the anonymity of the participants has all be taken into account to ensure that the experiment was ethical. The independent variable was the attractiveness (attractive, unattractive) of the picture that was matched with the crime. The dependent variable was the amount of years in prison the defendant was sentenced.
Participants:
In the study it was decided by the researcher that there will be a sample size of thirty males in their junior year of high school with a mean age of 17. These students cannot have had any previous affiliations with any psychology courses. The population from which the sample was taken was from the junior class of an American school in Taipei, Taiwan. The selection procedure consisted of numbering a class list from numbers 1-94 and then using a Texas Instrument-83 random number generator, the list of 30 males in the junior year of high school was compiled.
Apparatus/Materials:
- Texas Instrument- 83
- Class list consisting of all students in the junior grade
- Internet
- Reference material from “A Level Psychology Practicals”
- Standardized instructions for the participants
- Debriefing notes
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Pictures from ,
Procedure:
First pictures of attractive/unattractive pictures of women were found off the Internet () and (). Males in the junior grade were then surveyed to see if they agreed to the attractiveness of the pictures. After reaching an agreement the researchers then came up with a description of a crime. The description of the crime was then paired either with an attractive picture or an unattractive picture. Following this, the participants that were selected by the researchers previously were asked how many years the defendant is to be sentenced to jail. 10 participants will be asked to decide the amount of years to be sentenced to the attractive picture while the 10 other participants will be asked to decided the amount of years to be sentenced to the unattractive picture. The last 10 participants were asked to determine the amount of years the suspect was to be sentenced in jail without a picture of the suspect. The mean of the years sentenced from the three groups was then calculated.
The issue of standardization was solved by writing an informed consent with a description of the study without revealing what was being tested. This consent will be the same for all participants. After the experiment the participants will be debriefed by a sheet detailing what was done and why. This sheet was also the same for all participants. (In Appendix A,)
Results
Description of Results:
The results were organized into three groups with 10 participants from each of the groups (control, attractive, unattractive). N=30
The results from the experiment showed that the mean amount of years the participants decided to sentence the less attractive suspect was greater compared to the mean number of years sentenced to the attractive suspect. The mean number of years that the participants decided to sentence the less attractive suspect was 4.5 years compared to the 3.85 years for the attractive suspect. In the control group the mean number of years that the suspect should be sentenced was in between the attractive and unattractive groups at 4.1 years.
The mode, however, was greater in the unattractive compared to the mode of the attractive group. The mode in the unattractive group was 3 years in prison while the attractive group had a mode of 5 years in prison. The control group however was again in between the two groups with a mode of 4 years. The standard deviation in the attractive group and the unattractive group were very close with the attractive groups being more by 0.5.
The graph above shows the mean number of years that the participants decided to sentence the suspects from the corresponding groups. It can be seen from above that the results support the researcher’s hypothesis that attractiveness does affect the amount of prison years sentenced.
Discussion
In order to compare the results from the study the researcher had to first analyze the results from the control group. In the control group there was no picture present, therefore it was set as the standard in which the two other groups were compared to. The results showed that the attractive suspect received on average less amount of years sentenced in jail compared to the unattractive suspect, which supports the research hypothesis. The conditions in which the groups were tested were exact except for the manipulation of the independent variable in the two different groups. The findings was not very consistent with the research hypothesis due to the fact that some of the participants had previous knowledge of what was being tested therefore their results were in a way biased. Throughout the study there were no anomalous results.
As seen in the theoretical evidence before, the Halo effect and the belief that beautiful people posses more socially desirable characteristics affect the perceiver’s judgments. The reason for this is because people form impressions of others through previous experiences and categorize them in what is called schemata. Schemata can be used to explain why the participants performed the way they did. People that fall under certain categories are presumed to have predefined characteristics. Through society, people generally have associated ugly with evil, this might be a reason why unattractive people received more time sentenced to prison. Further investigation in how people form these schemata and why they are formed may give a more in-depth understanding on how appearance affects behavior.
After conducting the study various weaknesses can be identified in the methodology. Although the researcher selected participants randomly for the attractive and unattractive groups the control group participants were selected by using an opportunity sample due to time constraints. Another weakness in the methodology is the participants not taking the study seriously because the degree of unattractiveness of the picture was too extreme so the participants thought it was a joke. The participants were also influenced by the surrounding, either their friends or the environment. This may have contributed to making the results less precise. A factor that the researcher could not control was the lack of knowledge in the participants on how many years a person committing a certain crime should be sentenced; therefore they could not judge accordingly. The participant’s previous knowledge of this study also played a significant role in the accuracy of our results. Some of the participants already knew what we were testing; therefore their judgment might have been biased.
Overall the methodology can be improved by devising a better way of collecting data, making sure that the participants do not have a previous knowledge of the study and also to conduct the experiments more professionally so the participants will take it seriously. For more accurate results the participants could have been isolated and be designated to a certain area while doing the study so there was no interference. While the researcher was conducting the study a question of whether of not the participants were actually looking at the picture arose. This was due to numerous of times, after the researcher debriefed the participant the participants commented that they did not even look at the picture that was attached. A topic that will be interesting to study is to replicate this study with law students, since they will have a basic knowledge of about how much time a crime of such degree should be sentenced to prison, this will make the study more controlled and also improve the accuracy of the results.
Conclusion
The results from the study indicated that the mean number of years sentenced to the unattractive suspect (4.5) was longer compared to the number of years sentenced to the attractive suspect (3.85). The mode for the number of years sentenced to the attractive suspect was surprisingly more at 5 years compared to the unattractive suspect of 3 years. This supports the research hypothesis that defendants who are more attractive receive lighter sentence than those that are less attractive on average.
References
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Stewart, J (1980). Defendant’s attractiveness as a factor in the outcome of criminal trials: An observational study. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 10, 348-61.
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Sigall, H. & Ostrove, N. (1975) Beautiful but dangerous: Effects of offender attractiveness and nature of the crime of juridic judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 31, 410-414.
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Benson, P.L, Karabenick, S.A. & Lerner, R.M. (1976) Pretty pleases: The effects of physical attractiveness, race, and sex on receiving help, Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, 12, 409-415.
Appendices
