NCJ Number
89883
Journal
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1982) Pages: 286-292
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Two studies showed that bias of jurors in favor of an attractive defendant was significantly reduced by increasing the factual material in the case.
Abstract
Subjects were undergraduate students presented individually with one of four versions of a case description and asked to make sentencing judgment on its basis. The case descriptions contained varying degrees of specificity regarding the details of a hit-and-run drunk driving incident and the offender's personality. Findings suggest that increasing the quantity and precision of relevant facts transfers the emphasis from judging the perpetrator to judging the crime. Tabular data and six references are given.