Abstract
These studies were designed to extend the limited psycho-legal literature on weight bias in juror decision-making. Methods: In two studies, students (N = 208) and online community participants (N =...
Highlights
ObjectivesThese studies were designed to extend the limited psycho-legal literature on weight bias in juror decision-making
As with Study 1, we conducted hierarchical logistic regressions to test the effects of defendant gender, defendant weight, and attitudes toward obesity on dichotomous verdict decision
SE = 0.22, p = .837, Exp(B) = 0.96, and for the overweight condition, B = −0.46, SE = 0.27, p = .091, Exp(B) = 0.63. These findings indicate that participants were harsher toward a defendant of average weight as compared to a defendant who was underweight, dependent on attitudes toward obesity
Summary
These studies were designed to extend the limited psycho-legal literature on weight bias in juror decision-making. Participants made verdict decisions and completed a measure of positive attitudes toward obesity. Results: In Study 1, the overweight condition featured a fairly even verdict split, while the underweight and average weight conditions featured a higher proportion of guilty verdicts than not guilty verdicts. In Study 2, among those with more positive attitudes toward obesity, the average weight condition yielded a greater likelihood of a guilty verdict as compared to the underweight condition. Future researchers examining weight bias in the courtroom should consider the potential effects of crime congruency by exploring defendant weight in different types of criminal cases
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