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verdict and to rate the defendant as either “more” or “less”
physically threatening, intelligent, attractive, and friendly.^132 The
portfolio included the defendant’s photograph in one of four
possible combinations: male Caucasian wearing eyeglasses; male
Caucasian not wearing eyeglasses; African American wearing
eyeglasses; or African American not wearing eyeglasses.^133 In
this study, participants rendered a “guilty” verdict only forty-
four percent of the time against defendants who wore eyeglasses,
while defendants who did not wear eyeglasses were found
“guilty” fifty-six percent of the time.^134 The study found no
significant difference between the verdicts for Caucasian
defendants and the verdicts for African-American defendants.^135
Brown’s follow-up study, using the same general format and
method noted above, examined the effect of eyeglasses in a
white-collar crime context.^136 Consistent with the previous study,
defendants who wore eyeglasses were rated as being more
intelligent.^137 However, increased ratings of intelligence
positively correlated with an increased number of guilty
verdicts. In Brown’s presentation of a white-collar crime,
eyeglasses had a “detrimental indirect effect” on a defendant by
making the defendant appear more intelligent.^138 Brown’s studies
did not definitively conclude that wearing eyeglasses equates to
(^132) Id. at 3.
(^133) Id. (using models comparable in age, weight, hair color, hair length,
eye size, and facial hair, and wearing the same eyeglasses in each
photograph).
(^134) Id.
(^135) Id. (concluding that Caucasians received guilty verdicts fifty-one
percent of the time, while African Americans received guilty verdicts forty-
nine percent of the time). Although there was not a significant difference in
verdicts based on race, “race was a significant predictor of several perceived
defendant characteristics.” Id. When both race and eyeglasses were taken into
account, African Americans were perceived as more attractive and more
friendly, while Caucasians were perceived as less attractive and less friendly.
Moreover, African-American defendants wearing eyeglasses were perceived
as less physically threatening than Caucasian defendants wearing eyeglasses.
Id.
(^136) Id.
(^137) Id. at 3–4.
(^138) Id. at 3.