Abstract
The present study is an experimental study on how rape victims` emotional expression and attractiveness affect judgments of their credibility. 20 different rape scenarios were compared to explore the effect on laypeople, (n = 59). These data were collected by the author of this thesis. Preliminary analysis was made to be able to control for and rule out effects of differences in scenario credibility, differences in the seriousness of the scenario, how much the woman was to blame in each, and how guilty the man was considered to be. Results of the main study showed a strong effect of the emotional expression of the victim on judged credibility. In fact, emotional expression completely overruled effects of differences in how credible the rape-story was, the seriousness of the crime, how much the woman was to blame, and how guilty the offender was considered to be. It also has a strong effect on the length of perpetrator sentencing. Attractiveness had a negative effect on credibility. It also correlated positively with how guilty the woman was considered to be for the incident. The effect of attractiveness was completely overruled by the effect of the emotional expression when the effect of the two was combined. This shows that emotional expression of the victim influences judgments of credibility in a stronger sense than attractiveness does. The effect of emotionality on all the other factors was significant. These results are alarming, since emotional expression is not a good indicator of the actual credibility of victims. It indicates that our justice system might be influenced by factors that are actually irrelevant in the question of guilt and punishment.