Topic 4 - Sigall and Ostrove - Attractiveness of the defendant Flashcards
What was the background of the research and the Halo effect?
Dion et al (1972) found that people tend to believe that people who are more attractive have other positive qualities (successfulness, honesty, intelligence) just because they are attractive
What was the aim?
To investigate whether the attractiveness of a defendant affects judgements made about them and whether this is influenced by the type of crime they are accused of
What was the research method?
Lab experiment
What was the sample?
120 college students (60 each gender)
What was the method?
The participants rad an account of a crime where the defendant was female
What was the IV?
Whether the crime was a burglary or involved swindling (fraud) or whether she was described as attractive, unattractive or didn’t mention it (control group
How were they assigned?
Randomly
What was the prediction?
That in a crime where the defendant’s beauty would not be relevant, in this study, burglary, that she would be treated more leniently by the mock juror - if she used her beauty int he crime she would be treated harshy
What happened after reading the account?
They were asked to recommend a punishment for her in terms of ears in jail
What were the findings?
Attractive with swindling earned the most years (5.45) and attractive with burglary earned the least amount of years (2.8)
What were the conclusions?
Attractive people are treated more favourably by juries unless they use this to defraud people
