Das Erscheinungsbild des Gesichts kann die Beurteilung von Bewährungs- und Rückfallurteilen beeinflussen. „Kriminell“ aussehende Gesichter wurden als weniger bewährungswürdig und eher rückfällig eingestuft. „Reuevolle“ Gesichtszüge führten häufig zu günstigeren rechtlichen Urteilen und Ergebnissen.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/media-spotlight/202606/can-a-face-influence-justice-the-hidden-power-of-appearance
18 Kommentare
Research shows facial appearance can shape parole and recidivism judgments.
KEY POINTS
Appearance-based biases may undermine fairness even when decision-makers seek objectivity.
„Criminal“-looking faces were judged less deserving of parole and more likely to reoffend.
„Remorseful“ facial features often led to more favorable legal judgments and outcomes.
Stevens, B. B., & Kleider-Offutt, H. (2026). When looks could kill … or set you free: The role of appearance in legal decisions. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Advance online publication. [https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mac0000272](https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/mac0000272)
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fmac0000272
Got it, will do the puss in boots face at sentencing if I ever get into crimes.
Physiognomy strikes again
Although faces can tell a lot about personality traits.
I’ve wondered before because of all the biases in the justice system if all suspects/convicts in court should be sat in a curtained box with a voice distorter or something
This is why we should push back again facial recognition popping up. Whether it be in CCTV, speed cameras, and age verification.
Defend Digital Me
Justice should be given to AI at some point.
Nice to see we still haven’t moved on from this in the last 100 years.
I’d bet we can connect those “criminal features” almost directly to phrenological types described in the 19th century.
The “science” gets debunked, but the science was just based on the existing biases to begin with. Those biases did not go away because the science was debunked because the science was invented to justify the biases anyway, not the other way around.
Despite a wealth of data on how and why people actually turn to criminality, the justice system primarily runs on those same biases, just constantly on the lookout for new pseudoscience to justify them.
We have so many structural biases in how our brains work that we simply refuse to acknowledge as a society. If we were actually willing to act on what we know about how humans work, society would look massively different.
I wonder what a criminal face and remorseful face looks like…
If the study didn’t involve judges or actual criminal court outcomes, the study has no bearing on parole outcomes.
It’s an especially confusing motivation given that a parole board *knows* prisoners are criminals. You don’t need a facial analysis. Everyone up for parole did a crime!
Being a human really sucks ass.
A famous example of this is the Lindy Chamberlain story where the jury and media
essentially convicted her because they didn’t like her general demeanour because she wasn’t ‘grieving properly’.
There were arguments over the evidence, but it clearly had a large impact on people’s decision-making about her guilt.
Lookism and beauty privileges strike again, more news at 20
Yeah this was a huge data point in Malcolm Gladwell talking to people book
Maybe a functioning criminal justice system should be based on protecting communities instead of cruelty and slavery like it is in America.
Makes sense. People treat you how you look more than how you are in surface level interactions. It’s very beneficial/useful