Citation

Shechory Bitton M, Zvi L. J. Soc. Psychol. 2019; 159(5): 503-517.

Affiliation

Ariel University.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/00224545.2018.1509043

PMID

30152730

Abstract

The chivalry hypothesis and attractiveness bias were evaluated among 323 police officers and 364 students, serving as a control group. The participants were asked to read a description of a swindle, where the offender was either physically attractive or unattractive. They then had to assign a punishment to the offender and judge the blame ascribed to both offender and victim. The findings showed that the offender's sex, more than his or her external appearance, affects differences in punishment severity. Female offenders were treated more forgivingly than male offenders. Nonetheless, analysis of blame attributions shows that attractive offenders are blamed more than unattractive offenders. Women were also found to dispense severe punishments more than men.

Language: en

Keywords

Attractiveness bias; chivalry hypothesis; judgments offenders; police officers