Guilt, sentencing and social desirability: effects of suspect gender, attractiveness and age

Age, attractiveness and gender are important variables in determining conviction rates, sentence length and social desirability. The purpose of the present study was to examine the interactive effects of attractiveness, age and gender on degree of guilt and length of sentence, as well as the relationship of degree of guilt and length of sentence on social desirability. Results indicated no significant interaction between age, attractiveness and gender but show trends similar to those demonstrated in past research. Younger defendants received higher social desirability ratings than older defendants, and older females received the lowest social desirability rating in comparison to other groups. There was no significant relationship between social desirability and either degree of guilt or sentence length suggesting that further research needs to be done with a larger sample.