Male Jurors More Likely to Find Heavy Women Guilty

[Cali_Democrat]

Researchers said that weight-based stigmatization was now on par with racial discrimination.
By Makini Brice | Jan 11, 2013 04:32 PM EST

Jurors are supposed to be impartial but, as one recent study attests, personal prejudices can easily creep in. According to a study conducted by Yale University researchers, male jurors are more likely to find obese defendants guilty.


The researchers assembled a group of 471 individuals, both men and women. The "jurors" were presented with the facts of a case about check fraud. They were also shown images of one of four defendants: a thin man, an obese man, a thin woman and an obese woman. Using a five-point scale, the participants were asked to rate how guilty they thought the defendants were.

None of the participants judged the men any differently regardless of size. However, that was not true of the female defendants. While women judged both the lean and the heavyset women the same, male jurors judged the obese woman more harshly. The lean male jurors were worst of all, labeling the obese female defendants with terms like "repeat offenders". The finding is consistent with other research that finds that obese women face more of a weight-related stigma than obese men.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/articles/13872/20130111/justice-isn-t-blind-male-jurors-more.htm

[hlthe2b]

1. OMG....! I wish I could disbelieve this, but having seen some of the horrific bias re: weight on DU

I have to say this may not be surprising.

Some of the comments here on DU-toward both obese men and women (but reserving special derision for obese women)-- is really shocking. Truly the last bastion of seemingly "acceptable" bigotry.

We rightfully seek to address and educate on the fact that teens (and others) willingly kill themselves for the self-loathing that comes from some societal attitudes toward being gay, yet we seem totally oblivious and willing to address the fact the same is happening to obese kids.

Time to wake up... really.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

2. Interesting

The three jury trials I served on the defendant was always a guy.

[cthulu2016]

3. Seems credible to me

[theoldman]

4. Nothing new here.

Juries are always prejudiced against people who are not very good looking. They also help convict people from a different race.

[happyslug]

10. Actually it is more complex then that

If the crime is a "Normal Crime", theft, murder etc, the better looking you are, the less likely you will be convicted, and if convicted it will be of a lesser crime (Manslaughter instead of Murder for example).

On the other hand, if the crime is one of fraud where the defendant's appearance was a factor, the better looking you are, the higher the chance of conviction and the greater chance of being convicted of the most serious charge (uglier people, in fraud cases, get lighter sentences and convicted on less severe charges).

Please note, the test case was a "Check Fraud" case, i.e. someone passing a check that was not theirs. "Check Fraud" was picked, apparently, due to the fact it was a "Fraud" case, but one where good looks are generally NOT a factor (people look at the check, not the holder of the check). On the other hand, it was still a "Fraud" and in most "Fraud" cases looks are a factor. Thus this study is something in between the two positions, most people not hearing more will treat it like a regular crime. Thus the results.

[DonRedwood]

5. Interesting--thanks for sharing

[seabeyond]

6. the woman had the audacity to NOT be sexually pleasing to a man. hang her. nt

[MotherPetrie]

7. Bingo

[DearHeart]

8. Quelle Surprise!

"According to research previously conducted at the Rudd Center [at Yale University], the prevalence of weight-based stigmatization is now on par with rates of racial discrimination, and has been documented across multiple domains, including employment, medical, and interpersonal settings," lead author Natasha Schvey said in a statement.

"now on par with rates of racial discrimination"... Silly me, I thought discrimination was wrong. But, let's see...you can't discriminate against White men, women, African Americans, Latinos, Hispanics, Asian Americans, American Indians, Indians, Italians, Irish, French, Polish, Slavic, English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Africans, Arabs, Muslims, Jews, Christians, LGBT people, people with learning disabilities, people with mental illnesses, blind people, deaf people, etc., (Sorry if I missed anyone else!) but its just fine and dandy to discriminate against the obese, women in particular. Discriminated against because of "concern" for our health, right?

[AZ Progressive]

9. What is it with human beings desire to bully and make others lives miserable

Why if discriminating against a certain group of people is not taboo or discouraged, and especially if its somewhat acceptable, that at least a sizeable percentage of people take advantage of the opportunity to go and harass and bully such people? Look at muslims, it is still pretty much ok with seeing them in a contemptible manner that people don't care about hate crimes done to them. Muslims weren't responsible for 9/11, and just because many (most that aren't even in this country) are angry that the U.S. has been dominating the middle east that we go and take our resentment against the entire people?

And that people do this especially if encouraged by some authority (like Hitler and the German people to the jewish people, Religious leaders and religious people to gay people.)

This is nothing short of predatory behavior. This is condoning "natural selection" in a social darwinist manner (preying on the weak.) This especially of democrats is hypocritical, because the Democratic party is about tolerance and inclusion and being non-judgemental.

Imagine if someone would relentlessly bother and harass you and say demeaning things to you repeatedly, day after day or week after week, how would you feel?

I just don't understand why people desire to hurt other people and make other's lives miserable if given the opportunity. Why do people not deserve a "standard" level of respect in society, especially if they are harmless people that have done nothing wrong to others?

What has an obese person done to you? What has an individual muslim person done to you?

Not to mention that a predisposition to obesity is genetic (as there are some people who gain weight incredibly easy and there are others that no matter what they eat, they stay skinny). Losing weight for many is also an incredibly uphill battle (just like trying to pay off tens of thousands of dollars in college debt.) In addition, many obese people are obese because they are down on their luck (dealing with depression, dealing with bad things happening in ones life leading to "comfort food eating" in order to deal with the stress, which leads to major weight gain.)