Attractiveness Directly Correlates to Perceptions of Punishment

Zoe Andrew, Chanel Ison, Jamie McCoy

Portland State University

Abstract
The halo effect is a phenomenon in social psychology that says, when given a desirable
characteristic, people will tend to overlook other undesirable ones. For example, when meeting
someone for the first time, one might find that person attractive, and subconsciously overlook the
fact that the person is rude and pessimistic. This bias becomes more dangerous when it causes
people to be treated differently for their physical appearance in more serious circumstances.
Therefore, we constructed our experiment to find out whether or not more attractive people get
shorter prison sentences; which would indicate if these biases exist in systems larger than simply
social structures but also our criminal justice system.
We created four identical surveys that contained different photos-- but the same,
situational-description. We assigned two surveys with unattractive subjects on them while the
other two surveys concern attractive subjects. Data was collected by asking twenty people per
survey (N=80) how many years they believed the subject should be incarcerated. We found there
to be a significant difference in the average responses when looking at attractive vs.
unattractive faces (p=.029). Gender differences were also found in the average responses when
looking at just the attractive faces (p=.017).

Introduction
A halo which cannot and should not be eliminated because it is inherent in the nature
of personality, in the perceptual process, and in the very act of judgement (Bingham, 1939, p.
222). The Halo Effect, as subtle as it seems, is extremely prevalent in our everyday lives, even
more so in the criminal justice system. Our group was intrigued with finding a bias in peoples
opinions of a persons actions, based on their appearance. This study provided us with an
understanding of the grace that is given to those deemed attractive versus those who are not.
With the usage of multiple peer-reviewed articles, our team compiled enough information to
create a relevant, informative study. Our background research consists of crucial elements of
how the halo effect works, information guiding the importance of why appearance matters, an
overall take on how physical appearance is often misjudged as morality, and finally leading into
an idea of a quantified beauty.
There are two types of halo effect: invalid and valid. However, our project had more to do
with the invalid halo or the overgeneralization effect. The overgeneralization effect indicates that
people form biases about individuals because we associate how they look with who they are
(Gibson, 1971). This is stimulated by how we interact nonverbally, specifically by gauging facial
cues. These expressions indicate trait impressions, which are then used to tell us the nature of the
individuals behavior.
An explanation of the invalid halo is illustrated when Bingham analyzes phone interviews
and the ratings on a persons speaking voice. It was found that when on call with a young,
high-pitched-voice, female candidate, the listener viewed her more positively. Yet, when the
voice was of a husky, athletic male was used as an interviewer, ...it was considered: ludicrous,
bad, and in need of drastic re-training (Bingham, 1939, p. 222). This is due to the fact that,

judgment is an estimate passed upon a configuration in which the trait is but an aspect of a
personality pattern. (Bingham, 1939, p. 222). The invalid halo wrongly assesses the rest of a
persons traits based off one key, available trait. Ones voice attributed to a wider ground or
field which included the total personality pictured (Bingham, 1939, p. 222).
Bingham then went over valid halo in which does not have much importance to our
project but answers a few of those how can we rid of the halo effect? In the next section
Bingham goes over a study in which candidates are brought in for a job interview and get rated
amongst interviewers for a specific position. These ratings were brought, ...not upon extended
acquaintance nor upon casual observation, because the interviews were an in-person 20-45
minute process which were meant to shine light upon certain aspects of the candidates. They
rated eight traits: voice; appearance; language; alertness; ability to present ideas; poise,
bearing and tact; judgment; and personal fitness. Each trait was defined as succinctly as possible
in a brief paragraph. (Bingham, 1939, p. 224). This allowed for more structure in ratings leading
to the overall fitness for position rating. In short, assessing each and every trait in the interview
lead to a more objectified opinion since raters had similar, if not the same results amongst each
and every 11,000 candidates.
This perception depends on the individuals interpretation, which may arise from
emotional responses and/or comparison with previous experiences, (Sudweeks & Simoff, 1999,
p. 1). With that said, certain facial characteristics are more likely to elicit certain behavioral
responses from others. For example, people who have a baby face (larger eyes, rounder face,
higher forehead, etc.) are more likely to be perceived as approachable and honest as compared to
those with a more adult face (Zebrowitz, 2008).

Moreover, those that are categorized as more attractive are seen as possessing positive
traits such as: socially competent and powerful, fertile, sexually responsive, and overall people of
great health and good genes. Facial symmetry and attractive averageness are also associated with
having strong immune systems. Meanwhile, those that are seen as less physically attractive
maybe devalued because their genes appear unfit and sometimes seen as sickly, less average,
less symmetrical, older, or less prototypical for their sex..., which in turn, ...creates impressions
of lower social competence, social power, sexual responsiveness, intelligence, and/or poorer
health as well as more negative social outcomes (Zebrowitz, 2008, p. 1502). Overall, people
with more attractive faces are judged more positively on a host of dimension (Zebrowitz, 2008,
p. 1503).Although sayings such as dont judge a book by its cover, are prominent throughout
our culture, it is found that making judgements based on physical appearance is inevitable. It is
natural for us to base the inner workings of a person due to their outward appearance for reasons
beyond vanity.
We also studied deep into this idea of the, ... universal aesthetic principles, which
includes, ...skill, symmetry, balance, clarity, colour, smoothness, brightness, youthfulness,
novelty and fineness (van Damme, 1996). This is what we quantified beauty into; the more
symmetrical and balanced a face appears, the more we will receive a positive response.
Symmetry and balance are essential to universal aesthetics. The underlying idea holds that
humans agree on beauty when looking at symmetrical things. This is true for both objects and
faces. We take the Taj Mahal for example, a perfectly symmetrical building. Studies show that
the viewing of this building will produce the same positive responses a picture of Da Vincis
Mona Lisa, a symmetrical face, will (Sudweeks, & Simoff, 1999).

Overall, our background researched provided a sufficient grounds in which to build upon.
We were able to articulate an understanding of crucial elements regarding the halo, gather
information that guided the importance behind appearance, determine why physical appearance
is often misjudged as morality, and assess a quantified universal theme of aesthetics. In our
research we often came across studies that involved the work environment i.e. wages, hiring
processes, etc.. Our study, on the other hand, took a deeper look into the criminological side of
the phenomenon. We applied this to the average persons interactions on a day to day basis, the
juror, even the judge. Therefore, we hypothesized that, given a universally aesthetic (attractive)
face, humans will be more apt to agree upon a less severe prison sentence. Our null hypothesis
was that humans do not form biases in their opinions based off the appearance of another
humans facial structure.
Methods
To test our hypothesis, we conducted an experimental study that consisted of a survey
among 80 Portland adults around PSU campus. Participants were chosen at random as they
passed by our groups station on campus, though we got a nearly equal representation of genders.
We identified the explanatory variable of our study to be the defendants attractiveness, and the
response variable to be the suggested prison sentence.
The survey gave a hypothetical scenario where a 25-year-old woman who was working as
a student-mentor at a local high school was being charged with statutory rape, though it was
implied that it may have been consensual. We asked participants to respond to the question,
How long should Michelles prison sentence be? When participants probed for more
information on the scenario, such as what the normal sentence would be, we stated that we were
not allowed to give any more information than what was provided in the survey. There were four

surveys, all with the same scenario, but two had photos of attractive women, and two with
unattractive women. Attractiveness was quantified using an online facial symmetry measuring
tool (Anaface). The attractive womens faces were measured as being 80.7% and 83%
symmetrical, and the unattractive womens faces were measured at 68.2% and 70.9%
symmetrical.
Once the data was recorded, statistical analysis was performed using Excel. We found the
average, median, and mode responses for males, females, attractive faces, unattractive faces,
males regarding attractive faces, females regarding attractive faces, males regarding
unattractive faces, and females regarding unattractive faces, along with the standard
deviation and standard error of the responses. 95% confidence intervals were also found for the
true population means of the above categories.
After computing the averages of the categories, we assessed the differences in them for
significance, with the level of significance set at p<.05. T-tests were performed to find the
probability of our results occurring if our hypothesis was false (p-value).

Results
Figure 1.

Figure 2.

Frequencies of responses to survey question for the attractive face (figure 1) and
unattractive face (figure 2).
When asked how long the attractive defendant should be incarcerated, the average
response was 4.9 years (median=3.5 years, mode=5 years, standard deviation=4.68). Regarding

the unattractive face, the average response was 6.7 years (median=7, mode=8, standard
deviation=3.78). We found the 95% confidence interval for the true population mean to be
between 3.42 and 6.38 years for the attractive faces (standard error=.74), and between 5.54 and
7.93 years for the unattractive faces (standard error=.598). It was concluded that there was a
significant difference between the average proposed incarceration time (p=.029).
We also tested for differences in male and female responses for attractive vs.
unattractive faces. For the attractive faces, the average response for males was 3.86 years (st.
dev.=3.86). Females, on average, proposed a prison sentence of 6.05 years (st. dev.=5.32). We are
95% confident that the true population mean for the males judging of the attractive faces falls
between 2.17 and 5.54 years (st. error=.84), and between 3.61 and 8.49 years for females (st.
error=1.22). We were able to conclude that there was a significant difference in male and female
responses for the attractive faces, that males proposed shorter prison sentences for faces deemed
attractive, than females (p=.017, st. error=2.2).
When looking at the unattractive faces, we were unable to find a difference in
responses among genders (p=.67, st. error=1.5)(average male response=6.9 years with st.
dev.=3.5, average female response=6.5 years with st. dev.=4.19).
These averages are visually presented in figure 3 and figure 4.

Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Average responses for attractive (figure 3) vs. unattractive faces (figure 4).

Lastly, we tested for general gender differences, disregarding whether the face was
considered attractive or not. For males, the average response for any survey was 5.43 years with

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a standard deviation of 3.96. For females, the average was 6.27 years with a standard deviation
of 4.74. There was no general difference found in the responses for males and females (p=.39, st.
error=.97).
Discussion
Since our p-value is less than 0.05, we can reject our null hypothesis and conclude that
people do form biases based on an individuals facial symmetry-- and, therefore, are more likely
to imprison someone for longer durations if they find a person unattractive. There was also a
concluded difference found between average responses from males and females when
considering attractive faces. This leads us to further believe that attractiveness plays a role in
peoples decision making process, if we assume that more of the population identifies as
heterosexual, making males look at the women from a more sexualized standpoint. Some
confounding variables that we found throughout our study are subjective views of whats
considered attractive.
To expand on this further, it is notable that we measured attractiveness based upon facial
symmetry and those that were considered unattractive in the study had a lower percentage of
facial symmetry than those deemed attractive. Yet, people that took our survey may not have
looked at just facial symmetry to determine whether or not they found these individuals
attractive. For example, the unattractive faces have features such as eye bags or characteristics
that may seem unhygienic; meaning that the sample may be determining what attractiveness is
not by the standards that we desire but by their own.
We could attempt to account for this confounding variable by having our sample look at a
separate group of photos and ask them whether or not they find those subjects attractive. Once
they answer yes or no, we can ask them how symmetrical they believe that these faces are from a

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scale from 1-5. Based on our data and previous test studies, we would expect to see that those in
our sample would rate attractive faces higher-- thus, proving our point that symmetry is
correlated with perceived attractiveness.
Our groups study was significantly similar to that of Binghams on the valid and invalid
forms of halo. Our study followed the idea underlying invalid halo. The invalid is better
understood as the overgeneralization effect; when people form biases about individuals because
we associate how they look with who they are (Gibson, 1971). Binghams study analyzes phone
interviews and finds biases between the interviewer and the interviewee. The interviewer gave
better ratings to women with a young, high pitched voice and a lower rating to men reflecting a
similar tone. The interviewers invalidly rated the interviewees traits based off of one aspect.
This is exactly what our study worked to find by assessing peoples opinions of statutory
possible offenders.
Conclusion
The halo effect is notably prominent and integrated into our culture. Therefore, although
were encouraged to never judge a book by its cover, it is expected that many will still do so.
This flaw in our own human nature has tainted many institutions, such as our criminal justice
system. Our results indicate that there is a causal relationship between ones perceived
attractiveness and the number of years one is incarcerated. With that said, we encourage
further research to find out all of the factors that are considered to construct ones attractiveness
and find out to what degree each plays a role so that we can be more wary of the halo effect
within our everyday lives. Though our findings indicate that the halo effect does indeed deal with
facial symmetry, we should also consider other factors as well.

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References
Retrieved from Anaface (2009-2012). www.anaface.com
Bingham, W. V. (1939). Halo, invalid and valid. Journal of Applied Psychology, 23(2), 221-228.
Retrieved from http://stats.lib.pdx.edu/proxy.php?
url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/614257835?accountid=13265
Gibson, J. (2014). Ecological Approach to Visual Perception: Classic Edition (Psychology Press
& Routledge Classic Editions). London: Taylor and Francis.
Wannarumon, S., Bohez, E., & Annanon, K. (2008). Aesthetic evolutionary algorithm for fractalbased user-centered jewelry design. AI EDAM, 22(1), 19-39.
Zebrowitz, L., & Montepare, J. (2008). Social Psychological Face Perception: Why Appearance
Matters. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2(3), 1497-1517.
Damme, Wilfried van. (1996). Beauty in Context: Towards an Anthropological Approach to
Aesthetics (Philosophy of History and Culture). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill.

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Appendix

This is Michelle. She is 25 years old and was a volunteer student-mentor, at a high school
located in Portland, during the 2014-2015 school year. Michelle was charged for having sexual
relations with a 16 year old. How long should Michelles prison sentence be?

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This shows inquiry and critical thinking skills because it provides an overview of quantitative
literacy skills through statistical data and conclusive findings. My team members and I we able
to take an intriguing question and systemically approach it with research and data gathering. We
utilized appropriate methodologies that would seek to support our hypothesis but also
understood and analyzed the disadvantages in our research.