Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Inferences On Criminality Based On Appearance, Hannah Johnson, Morgan Anderson, Hayley R. Westra, Hayden Suter

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

In our research study, we tested whether people can tell if someone is a criminal or not based on a photograph of their face. The importance of the subject lies in the fact that many people are unfairly judged as criminals based on stereotypes such as race. In this study, we wished to eliminate race and see if any purely facial characteristics are stereotypically defined as criminal or if a person’s initial judgment is an accurate predictor of someone’s character. Extensive research has been dedicated to finding if people have facial features that portray some characteristic about them and this …