Face Tattoos Make You (Others) Look Guilty – The Consequences of Elective Nonverbal Signals
Christopher Philip
Are you considering getting a face-tattoo?
Don’t! It will make you look guilty!
It’s exceedingly rare for someone in the general public to quite literally deface themselves with something as overt as a face tattoo – but it does happen.
That being the case, one might wonder what affect this has on the outcome of day-to-day interactions. How do people react to a face tattoo? Are people with face tattoos different than someone who decides to leave their face free of ‘art’ or hide their tattoo in less conspicuous locations?
We’ll leave these discussions for another article. At hand, we’ll examin the specific outcome of face tattoos when deciding the outcome of courtroom punishment.
Researcher Friederike Funk and Alexander Todorov, Princeton University looked at the outcome of court trials involving suspects with and without facial tattoos.
They found that while facial tattoos did not lead to higher punishment, they did affect the judgment of guilt overall. That is, those with facial tattoos were more likely to be judged guilty than those without facial tattoos. This was the case, they discovered, for various offenses ranging in seriousness.
They say: “The effect on guilt was fully mediated by the perceived criminal appearance of the tattooed defendant.”
The facial tattoo made the suspects ‘fit the bill’ and made them appear more like criminals that those not having tattoos. In other words, when assessing guilt, people, in this case the jurors or judge, seek cues that support the criminal stereotype and this in turn influences legal judgment.
While we may expect such outcomes in general interactions, it should surprise us when they occur within the confines of a supposed objective process.
However, the results show that people are deeply affected by stereotypes, especially when they are nonverbal expressions as these tend to operate at a subconscious level.
Also important to point out is the fact that facial tattoos do not make one commit crimes, though an interesting study may find that people who choose to get face tattoos are more likely to take part in antisocial behaviour including crime. This specific study does not delve into this area, though others have.
The take-away message is that while guilt is not driven by facial tattoos, it is, however, associated with facial tattoos.
That is to say that while you aren’t necessarily guilty if you’ve got a big face-tat; people will think you are.
This leads us to wonder about other types of tattoos. What does a small butterfly say when it’s on your ankle? What about a set of wings plastered across your lower back – the so called “tramp stamp?” What about Chinese letters on your upper shoulder? (which hopefully read as you intended).
These “elective nonverbal signals” carry with them specific meaning and while we may desire for them to be unique and tailored messages they do carry with them certain stereotypes which people find difficult to ignore.
Therefore, while a tattoo wearer might wish to express their individuality by inking their bodies, they are sharing in the act with other’s whom have previous done so. With that expression come a set of judgment that is shared in common with others
So if you’re contemplating a Mike Tyson type tattoo across your face, or a lower back “tramp stamp,” you may instead opt for a small ankle butterfly if you wish to preserve your presumed criminal and sexual innocence.
In a perfect objective world, people wouldn’t be judged on superficial qualities, however, we develop stereotypes because it helps us make quick judgments about other people, especially strangers. While imperfect, stereotypes do give us a basis for operating when forming first impressions as it’s totally impractical to collect enough information to form an honest opinion about someone else in every circumstance.
However, and regardless of this, right or wrong, the very fact that people do use stereotypes when judging others means we should be careful about how we choose to adorn our bodies. Tattoos, piercings, and fashion all play a very important role in how we create impressions, thus they should be chosen with care and caution.
We might take offense to this, especially if we unwisely failed to realize that a lower back tattoo implied that we were tramps (when we weren’t – sheesh), however, we also likely judge the person who bears a facial tattoo wondering:
“Who in their right mind plasters their face with a hideous tattoo!”
Indeed, who does that!
A criminal.
Image Credit: kaybee07
Resources
Friederike Funk and Alexander Todorov. Criminal Stereotypes in the Courtroom: Facial Tattoos Affect Guilt and Punishment Differently. American Psychological Association. 2019. 19(4): 466-478. DOI: 10.1037/a0034736.