Columbia Study: Facial Biases Influence Legal Sentencing, Can Be Mitigated with New Training

Researchers have developed a successful intervention that reduces reliance on facial stereotypes, potentially transforming high-stakes decision-making in the legal system.

• Researchers at Columbia University have found that certain facial features, such as downturned lips and a heavy brow, can make someone appear untrustworthy and influence high-stakes decisions, including sentencing in the legal system.
• The study involved four experiments with 1,400 volunteers, who were shown mugshots of 400 inmates convicted of murder. Those with 'untrustworthy' facial features were more likely to be sentenced to death.
• The researchers developed a training intervention that successfully reduced reliance on facial stereotypes. The training involved associating untrustworthy-looking facial features with trustworthy behaviors.
• Previous attempts to reduce facial bias through awareness-raising interventions have been unsuccessful. However, this new approach, which operates on more unconscious principles, was able to eliminate both conscious and unconscious facial biases.
• The researchers are now investigating whether this training can be broadly applied and how to ensure the bias reduction persists over time.

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