Term of Award
Spring 2024
Degree Name
Master of Science in Experimental Psychology (M.S.)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (open access)
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Department
Department of Psychology
Committee Chair
Amy Hackney
Committee Member 1
Michael Nielsen
Committee Member 2
Thresa Yancey
Committee Member 3
Brenda Sims Blackwell
Abstract
It is commonly recognized that sentencing disparities exist between men and women who are accused of the same crime—with men often receiving harsher judgements than women. However, research explaining why this disparity exists is incomplete. Research suggests that higher levels of facial masculinity in men is tied to higher levels of criminality (Estrada-Reynolds et al., 2017); however, little research looks at this pattern amongst female defendants. The current study investigated whether the gendered appearance (masculine vs. feminine) of female defendants in different types of cases (child negligence vs. medical malpractice) affects mock jurors’ judgments about verdict, punishment, and internal blame attribution. Mock jurors were presented with photographs of the defendant, which were either manipulated to be high in physical characteristics of warmth (feminine) or high in physical characteristics of competence (masculine). Participants then read a trial summary and answered questions about their judgments. The results from Study 1 suggested that with the proper manipulation of gendered appearance, how masculine or feminine the defendant appears could influence mock jurors’ trial judgments. However, Study 2 found no effect of the defendant’s gendered appearance on participants’ trial judgments. The type of case, however, did influence how much the defendant was assigned to pay in damages. The lack of significant findings regarding gendered appearance could be due to inadequate power or because the gendered appearance manipulations were not salient enough. These findings suggest that masculinity may not be tied to guilt and harsher judgments amongst female defendants in the same way that it is with male defendants.
OCLC Number
1434251025
Catalog Permalink
https://galileo-georgiasouthern.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01GALI_GASOUTH/1r4bu70/alma9916570850502950
Recommended Citation
Helmerichs, Alaina, "Masculine vs. Feminine Women: Verdict, Blame, and Punishment Outcomes in the Legal System" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2788.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd/2788
Research Data and Supplementary Material
No