No Need For the Blindfold: The Influence of Perpetrator Attractiveness on Legal Decision-Making

Abstract

The idea that "justice is blind" has been called into question by some reports that attractiveness affects judgments of punishment and guilt. However, such studies are handicapped by a number of limitations, which this study attempts to correct. We used images of females that varied in ratings of facial attractiveness to study the effect of perpetrator attractiveness on punishment decisions. Male and female participants rated punishment while reading vignettes depicting various crimes, which were paired with a face image representing the perpetrator. We did not find a main effect of perpetrator attractiveness on punishment judgments. Additionally, we did not observe an interaction between attractiveness and crime type, level of criminal responsibility, or victim gender. These results support the idea that attractiveness does not influence legal punishment and, by so doing, bolster the notion that justice is truly blind.