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 finding was consistent with the research hypothesis and no anomalous results were encountered throughout the study.
As seen in the theoretical evidence before, the Halo effect (John E. Stewart III, 1980) 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 was the participants not taking the study seriously because the degree of unattractiveness of the picture was too extreme, therefore the participants thought it was humorous instead of being serious. 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 the researcher was 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
1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
In the study that my partner and I are about to conduct, will ask you to read the following criminal case committed by the suspect. You will then be asked to decide how severe you think the case is and how many years in prison the defendant should be sentenced (1-7 years). Informed Consent I have agreed to take part in this study on the basis of the written briefing made available by Andrew Liu and Kyle Webb. I understand the purpose of this study and give my informed consent to be interviewed. I understand that I have the right to withdrawal at any stage of the interview process and to withdrawal the data that I have provided up to the point at which I am given the opportunity to view and veto (withdraw) the transcript.
The study that we conducted was designed to measure the affects of appearance on human behavior. We had three different papers for three different groups. All had the description of the bank robbery, but one had an attractive picture, one had an unattractive picture, and one had no picture. Our hypothesis was that the amount of years that the participant decided to sentence the defendant would depend on the attractiveness of the person, and this is what we are trying to prove with this study. Hopefully our results will show that the attractive defendant will be sentenced the least years, the unattractive defendant the most years, and the description only somewhere in the middle.