The Criminal Face Effect: Physical Attractiveness and Character Integrity as Determinants of Perceived Criminality

A study was conducted which aimed to determine whether varying attractiveness and character integrity significantly affected the severity of the crime which participants associated with defendant portraits. Participants were shown attractive and unattractive portraits that were paired with a positive, negative or no-character statement. It was predicated that both variables would have effects on the severity of the associated crime. It was hypothesised that they would also interact; the effect of the character reference would be, in part, dependent on the attractiveness. A 2x3 factorial ANOVA was performed and, as predicted, showed main effects of attractiveness and character on crime rating. However, the interaction was not significant and some of the results were inconsistent. It was concluded that attractiveness and character do independently and significantly affect perceived criminality, but that further study was required in a more ecologically valid context to confirm the findings.