Overweight women more likely to be found guilty by skinny men, study says

If you are fat and a woman, hope that you don’t find yourself facing a jury filled with thin males. A recent study by the Department of Psychology at Yale University found that thin males were more likely to find a woman guilty if she was obese than if she was thin.

The objective of the study was to see the influence of a defendant’s weight on simulated jurors’ perceptions of guilt. Lean and overweight adults were read a scenario of a check fraud cases while viewing one of four images of the alleged defendant: a thin male, a thin female, an obese male and an obese female. The result: male respondents endorse greater overall weight bias than females and thin men were more likely to find the heavy women guilty. Those men also indicated a greater belief she’d be a repeat offender.

There were no differences in the perceptions of guilt or responsibility between the obese male and lean male defendants.

The researches concluded that the study indicates that weight and gender of a defendant may affect juror perception of guilt and responsibility.

What do you think about the study?