Have you ever been told, "you look like a good girl/boy"? Or perhaps something like, "you don't look like the type of person to do that." There are certain misconceptions society has when it comes to pairing morals with good looks. Be honest, would you crossover to the other side of the street if you saw a guy looking like this headed your way?:
What if he looked like this?:
These are two pictures of the same guy. The first one shows what he considers to be his normal, average self. The second picture is the idea of a good looking guy that society has structured--i.e., larger name brand glasses, facial hair, darker hair color. The unidentified man from the photos conducted an experiment on the popular dating app Tinder. In his article, It's Hard Being Average: My Tinder Experiment, he posted three pictures using the same profile information and tagline. The only difference were his pictures. The average looking guy got only 2 messages while the underwear model picture got 94 messages. While Tinder might not be the place to go to find a spouse, it is still one of the foremost authorities on the hot or not scale.
Beyond the scope of dating apps, there is the danger of projecting and prejudging people. You never hear about the "good" stereotypes, based solely on a person's looks. In the early 20th century, this sort of belief system escalated, in fact there is a science that can be traced back to as early as the writings of Aristotle. Especially interesting was the belief that a person’s inclinations, personality and character can be seen in the features of their face. Learn more about this here. Connor Tarter went into greater detail about this “science” in his article "Don’t Want to go to Prison? Get a Nose Job! (… and do something about those beady eyes)." Another name this phenomena goes by is physiognomy, where scientists look at the telltale signs of potential criminality by identifying features such as: "a flattened nose, high cheekbones, prominent orbits, bushy eyebrows meeting across the nose, angular skull, and handle shaped ears.” Studies of the time also identified an especially high correlation between certain facial appearances and types of crime.
So let's compare this to recent cases in which people were suspected of not being sentenced due to their looks. In April of 2016 (this year), Sarah Seawright was taken into custody for failure to appear in court in connection to a careless driving arrest. The report said she was previously accused of robbery, kidnapping and battery in a 2012 parking lot theft.
Here is a picture of Sarah's mugshot:
Pretty, right? She was freed.
The same charges were filed against Tracy Heffner.
She was not freed. According to Physiognomy, Tracy "looks" like a criminal.
The theory of being too pretty for prison has been proven true. As soon as society can stop pairing morality with beauty, we will be able to live with justice.
