TY - JOUR
T1 - Hypothetical Sentencing Decisions Are Associated With Actual Capital Punishment Outcomes
T2 - The Role of Facial Trustworthiness
AU - Wilson, John Paul
AU - Rule, Nicholas O.
PY - 2016/1/1
Y1 - 2016/1/1
N2 - Recent research has highlighted a relationship between perceptions of trustworthiness from faces and capital sentencing outcomes. Here, we extended those findings by replicating the relationship between trustworthiness and the death penalty among a new sample of targets convicted of capital murder in Arkansas and by demonstrating that facial trustworthiness guides naive sentencing decisions. First, trustworthiness differentiated convicted murderers sentenced to life from those sentenced to death using a novel stimulus population. Next, we found experimental evidence that people used inferences of trustworthiness from faces when making hypothetical capital sentencing judgments for noncriminal targets presented as murderers. Finally, naive participants viewing photographs of actual convicted criminals without any additional information allocated hypothetical sentences that matched those that were actually received in court. Facial trustworthiness, but not other inferences (i.e., Afrocentricity, attractiveness, and maturity), accounted for this relationship. These data therefore suggest that perceptions of trustworthiness guide individuals’ decisions about legal punishment.
AB - Recent research has highlighted a relationship between perceptions of trustworthiness from faces and capital sentencing outcomes. Here, we extended those findings by replicating the relationship between trustworthiness and the death penalty among a new sample of targets convicted of capital murder in Arkansas and by demonstrating that facial trustworthiness guides naive sentencing decisions. First, trustworthiness differentiated convicted murderers sentenced to life from those sentenced to death using a novel stimulus population. Next, we found experimental evidence that people used inferences of trustworthiness from faces when making hypothetical capital sentencing judgments for noncriminal targets presented as murderers. Finally, naive participants viewing photographs of actual convicted criminals without any additional information allocated hypothetical sentences that matched those that were actually received in court. Facial trustworthiness, but not other inferences (i.e., Afrocentricity, attractiveness, and maturity), accounted for this relationship. These data therefore suggest that perceptions of trustworthiness guide individuals’ decisions about legal punishment.
KW - face perception
KW - judgment
KW - legal processes
KW - trustworthiness
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84962712725&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1948550615624142
DO - 10.1177/1948550615624142
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84962712725
SN - 1948-5506
VL - 7
SP - 331
EP - 338
JO - Social Psychological and Personality Science
JF - Social Psychological and Personality Science
IS - 4
ER -