Is Facial Attractiveness a Factor in Victimization?

Research has repeatedly demonstrated that attractive faces are associated with qualities of goodness, honesty, warmth, and being more socially desirable. Physically attractive individuals have been found to have several advantages in interpersonal relationships, occupations, criminal justice system decisions, and health care compared to average and unattractive individuals. Past research indicates that physical attractiveness also plays a significant role in judicial settings. Specifically, victim attractiveness in rape cases have shown to have an impact on jury attributions of responsibility and sentencing of the offender. Thorton (1977) found that when the victim was attractive, the defendant received a longer sentence in contrast to when the victim was unattractive. Cavior and colleagues found that ratings for 75 female offenders on institutional performance were significantly related to attractiveness. Specifically, attractive female offenders were allowed to go on more out of town trips.

Literature on physical attractiveness generally notes only the positive advantages, as opposed to the negative disadvantages. While research on physical attractiveness has examined victim physical attractiveness from the crime of sexual assault, it has so far, not accounted for whether the victims attractiveness attributed to them becoming a victim of any other type of crime (e.g., homicide, robbery, criminal harassment etc.). The purpose of this study is to examine how victims of robbery are chosen. The intent of the study is to determine whether facial attractiveness play a role in the offenders selection process. More specifically, does facial attractiveness influence an offenders choice when selecting a target to commit robbery against.

As stated earlier, you will not be identified in any way if the results are published and nothing will connect you to your responses. There will be no way to associate your data with your identity. When data collection is completed, the raw data will be stored for ten years on a hard-drive in a locked cabinet which I, Stephanie Kaiser and Dr. Jamal Mansour, will have access to. There are no known physical, psychological, economic, or social risks associated with your participation in this study. In return, we want you to honour our confidentiality so please do not tell anyone about the details of this study. If other students know about the purpose and manipulations involved in the study before they participate, they may alter their natural responses and render their data useless, or even worse, misleading.

If you would like to hear the results of this study, please contact Dr. Jamal K. Mansour at jmansour@sfu.ca /or 778-782-9082, at the end of the semester. If you have any concerns or complaints regarding this experiment, please contact Dr. Hal Weinberg, director, Office of Research at hal_weinberg or 778-782-6593. The file number for reference if a complaint is received is 2012s1011.

Just in case you have any reservations about participating in this study, your data has not yet been submitted. Once you submit your data there will be no way for us to know who it belongs to so you will not be able to withdraw your consent for us to use your data. Thank you for taking the time to participate in our research.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic consult:

Dion, K. L., & Dion, K. K., (1987). Belief in a just world and physical attractiveness stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(4), 775-780.

Callan, M. J., Powell, N. G., & Ellard, J. H., (2007). The consequences of victim physical attractiveness on reactions to injustice: The role of observers belief in a just world. Social Justice Research, 20, 433-456.

Cavior, H. E., Hayes, S.C., & Cavior, N., (1974). Physical attractiveness of female offenders: Effects on institutional performance. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 1(4), 321-331).

Ferguson, P. A., Duthie, D. A., & Graf, R. G., (1987). Attribution of responsibility to rapist and victim: The influence of victims attractiveness and rape-related information. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 2(3), 243-250.