Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK; Centre for Psychological Medicine, Perdana University, Serdang, Malaysia. Electronic address: viren.swami@anglia.ac.uk
  • 2 Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK
  • 3 Department of Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK; Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour, Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway
Body Image, 2017 Sep;22:144-147.
PMID: 28777999 DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.06.009

Abstract

The attractiveness-leniency effect (ALE) suggests that physically attractive targets are less likely to be perceived as guilty compared to less attractive targets. Here, we tested the ALE in relation to attributions of students who have committed plagiarism. British adults (N=165) were shown one of eight vignette-photograph pairings varying in target sex (female/male), physical attractiveness (high/low), and transgression severity (serious/minor), and provided attributions of guilt and severity of punishment. Analyses of variance revealed significant interactions between attractiveness and transgression severity for both dependent measures. Attractive targets were perceived as guiltier and deserving of more severe punishments in the serious transgression condition, but there was no significant difference between attractive and less attractive targets in the minor transgression condition. These results are discussed in terms of a reverse attribution bias, in which attractive individuals are judged more negatively when they fail to live up to higher standards of conduct.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.