Justice is (not so) blind: Effects of facial masculinity and agreeableness on perceptions of criminal guilt

Justice is (not so) blind: Effects of facial masculinity and agreeableness on perceptions of criminal guilt. Ford, K. D., Penton-Voak, I. S., & Pound, N. (2020). Justice is (not so) blind: Effects of facial masculinity and agreeableness on perceptions of criminal guilt. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, Aug 2020. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000246

Abstract: People have a tendency to make rapid judgments about the personality of others based on their facial appearance, a tendency which could have adaptive value if it helps facilitate the avoidance of individuals disposed to exploit and/or harm the perceiver. These rapid judgments, accurate or not, have the potential to influence how individuals are treated in many areas of life, including within the criminal justice system. Previous research investigating effects of appearance on judicial proceedings has suggested that a masculine facial appearance might activate criminal stereotypes, and therefore increase the likelihood of being judged guilty of a crime. To examine how masculinity might interact with other appearance dimensions, we investigated how facial morphological masculinity and perceived agreeableness influence perceptions of criminal guilt. In an online study, 369 participants (167 men, 200 women, 2 did not say) aged 18 to 82, read 12 short fictional vignettes each describing a crime (assault, burglary, or rape) with each accompanied by the face of a man “charged” with the crime. Faces were manipulated using morphing techniques to increase or decrease levels of (a) morphological masculinity and (b) perceived agreeableness (i.e., 2 × 2 manipulations for each target face). Participants were asked to indicate in each case whether they thought the “accused” was guilty or not. Overall, facial appearance had a significant effect on the probability of being judged guilty. For each crime type, manipulations of perceived agreeableness had large effects on the probability of being judged guilty, whereas manipulations of morphological masculinity did not.

Public Significance Statement—This study investigated how facial appearance can affect whether people are perceived as likely to have committed a crime. Computer graphics techniques were used to manipulate aspects of male facial shape and the facial images were presented to volunteer participants in an online study. Manipulations of perceived agreeableness in faces had large effects on the probability of an individual being judged guilty of a hypothetical crime. However, changes to the shape of the face to make it more or less masculine did not.