Sigall and Ostrove (1975)

Aim
Whether attractiveness affected jury query making.This changes how Ostrove perceived the court of law.

Procedure
120 participants were given a piece of card with a crime written on it and a photograph of a woman known as Barbara Helms. They were split into six different groups of 20 participants. Each group saw either an attractive or an unattractive photograph of Barbara and read about a fraud or burglary she had committed.

1 attractive photograph of Barbara accused of burglary

2 unattractive photograph of Barbara accused of burglary

3 no photograph with the burglary case (control group)

4 attractive photograph of Barbara accused of fraud

5 unattractive photograph of Barbara accused of fraud

6 no photograph with the fraud case (control group)

Firstly all participants were asked to rate how attractive Barbara was to make sure that the participants agreed which photographs showed Barbara as attractive or unattractive. Then the researchers asked the individual jurors in each group to give Barbara a prison sentence ranging from one to fifteen years.

Results
A similar length of sentence was awarded for both crimes, with both the unattractive photo  and no photo. However, the attractive photo had a big effect on the participant's decision. They thought the attractive Barbara should spend longer in prison for fraud and less time in prison for burglary. Attractive people are associated with crimes like fraud because they use their good looks to swindle money out of others. Their victims would see them as trustworthy in order to hand over their money.

Conclusion
Highlights the importance that looks have on jury decision making. Good looking people do get away with some crimes, but if they have used their looks to commit a crime they are less likely to get away with it.