DOES BEING ATTRACTIVE HELP YOU IN COURT?

Face it, everyone is in a position to be a bit judgmental when it comes to convicted felons. Aside from a Judge or jury, friends, family, co-workers, and society at large are all guilty of this. And they do this because we have a criminal record.

Yup, this happens the moment we walk into a room, whether it be for a meeting, a job interview, or having our day in court. With all that said, conclusive studies have shown that attractive people get favorable treatment when interviewing for a job even before they’ve landed the job.

Not only that, but attractive individuals are more likely to be recommended for the job, considered more qualified, and are more likely to succeed. Question is, with all that judgement of opinion happening, why on Earth would this theory not lend itself to anyone who has a criminal record.

Put better…. Would being attractive help you in court or in a criminal case? Let us explore this exciting possibility (for those that consider themselves good-looking).

DOES BEING ATTRACTIVE HELP YOU IN COURT?

Yes, the available evidence to date suggests that the more attractive someone is, the less likely they are to be processed through the criminal justice system. Interestingly enough, when also found guilty, attractive individuals tend to receive lighter sentences, fines, and/or punishment.

According to a Cornell University study by Justin J. Gunnell and Stephen J. Ceci, a more attractive defendant is less likely to be found guilty. The study went on to confirm that jurors gave an average of 22 months more jail time to those that they deemed unattractive— amounting to almost two years. This unequal treatment does appear to be mitigated by the seriousness of the alleged offense, though.

There is a mountain of data that has been analyzed, all suggesting that attractiveness is a beneficial characteristic within the criminal justice system. Bear in mind, much of the research has been conducted using mock jury trials to isolate the effect of defendants’ attractiveness on verdict decisions.

The analysis conducted on multiple, multiple studies, netted a set number of different outcomes, all with the common denominator indicating that mock jurors were less likely to return guilty verdicts for an attractive defendant.

So, with all the evidence pointing towards beauty, where does that leave ugly people? Does that mean they are screwed? Answer: In so many words, unfortunately yes.

Furthermore, in a recent study, subjects were presented with pictures of persons (males and females) of varying levels of attractiveness along with a description of a crime that they may have committed. The subjects were then asked to determine the guilt or innocence of the person along with a number of other characteristics (e.g., the person’s reliability, aggressiveness, ruthlessness, etc.).

The results of the analysis indicated that there was a small tendency for more lenient assessments of more attractive females. There was no such effect detected for males.

Other studies that have not used a mock jury or an experimental design have also detected an association between the attractiveness of the defendant and verdicts.

In one study observers attended criminal trials and rated the attractiveness of the defendant. These measures of attractiveness were then examined in relation to the sentences and the results across numerous defendants; this revealed a statistically significant association between attractiveness and sentence length.

The end result being that the more attractive defendants received less severe sentences than lesser attractive defendants.

Does being attractive help you in life?

Substantial evidence indicates that good-looking people have an easier time in society, with the general perception of beautiful people being happier, more successful, wealthier, healthier, and more intelligent.

As unfair as it may sound, this is unfortunately backed up by scientific research suggesting life works just a little better for conventionally attractive people. Attractive people get paid more, get considered for more jobs, and have stronger social skills than unattractive people.

There has been a tremendous amount of interest regarding attractiveness and the effects that it has on people’s various life outcomes.

Studies have found, for instance, that attractive persons, when compared to less attractive persons, are more successful reproductively, report being healthier across a range of outcomes, fare better when it comes to dating and marriage, are more successful in the labor market and are viewed as having more successful political careers.

Taken together, the available evidence tends to suggest that attractive persons enjoy a greater range of benefits across multiple domains of life. So why on earth would that perception at all change if one had fallen into trouble with and landed on the wrong side of the law?

Are attractive people found guilty less often in court?

In the early laboratory work on mock jurors in criminal cases, researchers found an “attraction-leniency effect” on legal decision making by showing that attractive criminal suspects were less likely to be convicted and were given less severe punishments than their unattractive counterparts.

When Casey Anthony, who was accused of murdering her daughter, was found not guilty in 2011, the typical reaction among many viewers of news and news shows was one of speechlessness. After all, many wondered, how could she escape a guilty verdict when the evidence against her seemed to be so overwhelming.

The theory was that Anthony’s attractiveness led the jury to either consciously or unconsciously treat her with more leniency or to believe her side of the story.

The belief behind this theorization is that being bias due to attractiveness of someone is rarely a conscious effort.

Meaning, people are not consciously disapproving of unattractive people; they just tend to “really want” to believe, see, and enjoy attractive people how they want, as it has been conditioned in all of our minds as something that is the norm.

Kind of like falling in love with someone who is not ideal, nor compatible, yet we still gravitate towards that. Why is that?

Further adding insult to injury (as if this was all not enough), studies additionally show if there are monetary damages involved, then more attractive defendants tend to receive lighter penalties and/or fines. Case in point, the Downs and Lyons Study:

The purpose of this study was to find a link between a criminal’s attractiveness and sentencing outcomes. They gathered a group of police officers and students to rate the attractiveness of over 2000 criminals. A scale of 1 – 5 was used and their ratings were mostly similar.

Then, the judges sentencing decisions were divided into two main categories: misdemeanors and felonies. Misdemeanors were separated into to 3 classes, related to the severity of the crime.

For misdemeanors, the judges fined unattractive criminals significantly more than attractive criminals. The fine incrementally increased as the attractiveness decreased.

IN CONCLUSION

So why is this at all shocking knowing that attractive people (yet again) have an unfair advantage. Well, the simple belief that one would hope that at least in the courtroom, physical appearance would not come into play.

In fact, some would say that the courtroom—as a place of equity, impartiality, and justice—should be the last place where something like physical attractiveness should matter. But it does.

Is there bias and unfairness in the justice system? Of course there is. This will not change either. But this can be applied with life itself as attraction matters.

It helps your love life, work matters, opportunities, getting out of a ticket, and about a million other things I can think of. It definitely does not hurt to be attractive, and unfortunately sucks for the ugly.

–The Educated Felon