Abstract
This research tests the hypothesis that faces can serve as stimuli triggering consensual stereotypical responses in observers. Facial photographs of white middle-aged men were arranged in five separate arrays, each containing equal numbers of portraits. Subjects were first led to believe that each array contained one and only one portrait of each of the following “occupations”: mass murderer, armed robber, rapist, medical doctor, clergyman, and engineer. Following these instructions, subjects were asked to choose one picture for each of the six occupations. Chi-square analysis of their choices indicates that in all five arrays subjects’ selections are significantly non-random. A small number of portraits are often selected as “bad guys,” and a small number of other portraits are often selected as “good guys.” In addition, not only are criminal and noncriminal face prototypes suggested by the data, but subjects’ choices also tend to be occupation specific; however, this tendency was more evident when the choices were among the criminal rather than the noncriminal occupations. The results of the study were discussed in terms of the probability that stereotyping is a factor in jury decisions.
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Goldstein, A.G., Chance, J.E. & Gilbert, B. Facial stereotypes of good guys and bad guys: A replication and extension. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 22, 549–552 (1984). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333904
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03333904