# Can you tell criminals from non-criminals by sight? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 28, 2011, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613 "2011-12-28T10:36:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/21 "2011-12-28T18:07:03Z")
Okay, I don’t want to taint my results by reading other replies first, so here are my guesses: [spoiler] I think the criminals are 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15, 16, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 31 I think the non-criminals are 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 30, 32 I had trouble with 5, 9, 16, and 23. I feel reasonably confident about the rest. I tried to look around the eyes for signs of premature aging, squintiness (“something to hide”), and dishonesty. So basically, I was looking for hardened/career criminals. If someone just did a couple months in the pokey for weed possession, my method wouldn’t really apply.[/spoiler] Wow, I suck! heh. Only got 9 right. A lot of false positives. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2011, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/22 "2011-12-28T18:36:39Z")
I didn’t assume any of them were. I mean, they all look like people I’ve met, and as far as I know, I’ve never met any criminals. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/23 "2011-12-29T18:24:52Z")
amazing… I got 10 correct…missed 6 criminals and misidentified 5 as criminals/. Seems to be better than chance. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/24 "2011-12-29T20:58:05Z")
11 right: 4,5,8,10,11,16,21,23,28,29,31 ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/25 "2011-12-29T22:11:48Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I got what I expected: 8/16, which is what I’d get if I had picked people at random. Me too. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/26 "2011-12-29T22:23:22Z")
I’m awful at this apparently. I only guessed correctly at seven. All those photos looked quite bland to me - I’m curious which ones were most often missed, either because people assumed they were “criminals” although innocent or because some of the “innocent”-looking ones looked somehow more criminal. ---
**Author:** ![chiroptera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@chiroptera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chiroptera)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/27 "2011-12-29T22:30:29Z")
Mind you - this study wasn’t conducted on a representative sample of the general population. Almost all respondents were female, all were between the ages of 19-26, and they were college students taking a psych class. And it was a very small sample, all Americans. I don’t think this qualifies as a really reliable, valid test. > [@](#): > > 36 participants (33 female, 3 male; ages 19 through 26), were recruited from a > psychology class. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/28 "2011-12-29T22:31:47Z")
And this thread is probably pretty much useless as a poll since it will skew towards those who bother to post because they are proud of the fact they achieved better than chance. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/29 "2011-12-31T00:40:08Z")
I thought this thread would be a stealth poll on whether or not posters are bigoted ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/30 "2011-12-31T01:55:02Z")
Four Dopers had perfect scores (or so they say) -c’mon fess up! ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/31 "2011-12-31T08:00:53Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > And this thread is probably pretty much useless as a poll since it will skew towards those who bother to post because they are proud of the fact they achieved better than chance. Yes, that’s true. Also, the criticism to the study above is valid – at best, one can say that it shows that people can tell _convicts_ from non-convicts – or even more accurately, from people chosen from a database of facial expressions, respectively from a set of pictures ‘provided by a colleague’. I only skimmed the thing, but I didn’t see how and where it was ascertained that those people actually are ‘non-criminals’ – the NimStim catalogue, in particular, does not seem to include such data; the faces are those of professional actors, whose identity was not otherwise disclosed, posing in the required ways. So it seems they could all be criminals? > [@Namkcalb](#): > > I thought this thread would be a stealth poll on whether or not posters are bigoted Yes, I was afraid people would think this is an ‘so you would kill the baby Beethoven, but save Hitler?’-kind of ‘gotcha’ deal. But those are silly. ---
**Author:** ![ProbablyProcrastinating](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/57b2e6/32.png) [@ProbablyProcrastinating](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ProbablyProcrastinating)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/32 "2011-12-31T08:48:20Z")
I did far better than I thought-- 10/16! I’m not a good judge of character in some ways. I chose the cocky-looking ones. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/33 "2011-12-31T13:50:38Z")
> [@Namkcalb](#): > > I thought this thread would be a stealth poll on whether or not posters are bigoted Yea…no black pictures. However, that would have made it easy to spot the criminals. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/34 "2011-12-31T14:10:25Z")
Identifying criminals on sight is less about pictures of their face and more a total picture of body language and behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/35 "2011-12-31T21:01:05Z")
I got ten right. Gussed 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8,9, 10, 14, 16, 19, 23, 27, 28, 29, 31. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/36 "2012-01-03T18:15:36Z")
10 right. My guesses were: 1 4 (correct) 6 8 (correct) 10 (correct) 13 14 16 (correct) 18 20 (correct) 23 (correct) 26 28 (correct) 29 (correct) 31 (correct) 32 (correct) ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613/37 "2012-01-03T18:43:33Z")
Any statisticians care to do a confidence interval test on the results? Yeah I know skewed samples and all, still would be interested. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-tell-criminals-from-non-criminals-by-sight/607613.md?page=1)