Beauty Bias in the Court

Beauty Bias in the Court

By: Sofía Córdoba and Martina Fonseca

The beauty standards are even affecting our legal systems. We can't ignore the fact that humanity has grown more judgemental in terms of beauty. Each day, many people get physically and emotionally impacted by these standards of beauty we’ve created.

According to a NYU study, “The effects of physical attractiveness on judges were so influential, they found unattractive criminals 304.88% higher than attractive criminals.” That means there are more people in jail for being ugly than for being real criminals. Do you find this remotely fair? We basically condemn people merely by beauty standards.

We’ve seen this pattern happen in many contexts. In the court specifically, it’s more shown in these contexts.

1. The credibility is affected

The court tends to find people truthful, not just by things such as the tone of voice, or maybe the dressing style. which are quite common things the judges see. They also seem to find beauty as a sign of veracity. And beauty comes not only in terms of body shape, o type of nose. Also, things such as facial homogeneity play a part in this.

But, why are more handsome people found more credible than ugly people?. It’s simple. People often tend to trust someone who is seemingly nice to see. Since the brain is simply taught to be more attracted to beauty. There are other things that are also related to this perception of safety. Which is the “Good or bad” selection.

2. A constant distinction of good and bad

We’ve been taught to pay close attention to whomever we could encounter on the streets, but this paranoia is mostly led by a prejudice of the superficial look. We tend to hear things such as “We should change our direction. that person doesn't seem like a good person” or similar affirmations. This is also because of how the mind is taught to think.

3. The veredict

We can’t exactly blame ourselves. Most of what we judge is just how our mind predicts a person can be. Maybe on how our society has trained us to think that way. The judges are impacted by the “effect Halo” that says that a pretty person is good and an ugly person is bad. We are all impacted by the “effect Halo”. The verdict is worse for the ugly person even if the crime was little.