A researcher assesses the length of the prison sentence for physically attractive and physically unattractive defendants. He believes that attractive defendants will receive shorter prison sentences than unattractive defendants. The null hypothesis would suggest that:

A) there is no difference in the length of the prison sentence received by attractive and unattractive defendants.
B) physically attractive defendants will receive longer prison sentences than physically unattractive defendants.
C) physically attractive defendants will receive shorter prison sentences than physically unattractive defendants.
D) some other variable such as gender is responsible for the difference in the length of prison sentence.

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Hannah Verel · Accepted Answer

Final Answer : A, Explanation :  The null hypothesis states that there is no difference between the length of prison sentences for attractive and unattractive defendants. This is the baseline assumption that needs to be either rejected or failed to be rejected through statistical analysis. Option B and C are incorrect because they assume a specific direction of difference in sentence length, which do not conform to the null hypothesis. Option D is incorrect because it presents an entirely different variable as a possible explanation for the observed difference, which is not part of the research hypothesis.

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