736 JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLICY
The following studies indicate that perceptions and judgments
of those who wear eyeglasses permeate cultural, gendered, and
racial divides. As far back as 1944, G.R. Thornton, a professor
in the Department of Psychology at Purdue University, found
that people who wear eyeglasses are judged as being more
intelligent, more industrious, more honest, and more dependable
than those who do not wear eyeglasses.^52 A subsequent cross-
cultural study conducted twenty-five years later paralleled
Thornton’s findings.^53 A study led by Åke Hellström, professor
in the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University,
conducted a facial attributes rating analysis that directly linked
the wearing of eyeglasses with professionalism and intellect.^54
Specifically, this study revealed a strong perceived correlation
between the wearing of eyeglasses and both prestigious
occupations and positive character traits.^55 In 1991, a gender-
based study on stereotypes associated with eyeglasses found that
both men and women who wear eyeglasses are perceived as
(^52) G.R. Thornton, The Effect of Wearing Glasses upon Judgments of
Personality Traits of Persons Seen Briefly, 28 J. APPLIED PSYCHOL. 203, 203
(1944). Subjects wearing eyeglasses and judged via photographic slides were
rated as more intelligent, more industrious, more honest, and more
dependable. Id. However, subjects wearing eyeglasses and judged in person
were rated as more intelligent and more industrious, but not necessarily as
more honest. Id. at 207. When judged only by photographs, the subjects’
dress, demeanor, and overall appearance were excluded, supporting the
proposition that a person’s demeanor is also taken into account when
personality traits are judged. Id.; see also G.R. Thornton, The Effect upon
Judgments of Personality Traits of Varying a Single Factor in a Photograph,
18 J. SOC. PSYCHOL. 127, 127 (1943).
(^53) Manz & Lueck, supra note 21, at 704 (replicating Thornton’s study
with German students 25 years later, with subjects in photographs wearing
eyeglasses producing higher ratings than subjects not wearing eyeglasses in
the categories of intelligence, industriousness, dependability, and honesty).
(^54) Hellström & Tekle, supra note 20, at 694.
(^55) Hellström and Tekle’s study found that wearing eyeglasses positively
correlates to the occupations of physician, lawyer, professor, engineer,
pastor, politician, psychologist, and bank clerk, and positively correlates to
judged character attributes of trustworthiness, helpfulness, and intelligence.
Id. at 699. However, the study found that wearing eyeglasses negatively
correlates to the occupations of factory worker, colonel, farmer, and
salesman, and to the character attributes of masculinity and being suspect. Id.