The perceived trustworthiness of an inmate's face may seal his fate

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-07/afps-tto071415.php

Public Release: 15-Jul-2015
Association for Psychological Science

The perceived trustworthiness of an inmate's face may determine the severity of the sentence he receives, according to new research using photos and sentencing data for inmates in the state of Florida. The research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, reveals that inmates whose faces were rated as low in trustworthiness by independent observers were more likely to have received the death sentence than inmates whose faces were perceived as more trustworthy, even when the inmates were later exonerated of the crime.

"The American justice system is built on the idea that it is blind to all but the objective facts, as exemplified by the great lengths we go to make sure that jurors enter the courts unbiased and are protected from outside influences during their service. Of course, this ideal does not always match reality," say psychological scientists John Paul Wilson and Nicholas Rule of the University of Toronto, co-authors on the study.

"Here, we've shown that facial biases unfortunately leak into what should be the most reflective and careful decision that juries and judges can make -- whether to execute someone."

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