Irene wants to examine the effect of a defendant's appearance on the judgment of guilt for a crime. She has participants read an identical account of the crime except for the defendant's appearance. A group of high school students receives the description of an attractive defendant, while a group of senior citizens receives the description of an unattractive defendant. Both groups are then asked to rate the defendant's guilt on a seven-point scale. A major cause for confusion in Irene's experiment is the _____

According to my research on studies conducted by various sociologists, I can say that based on the information provided within the question there are two major causes for confusion in Irene's experiment. The first would be the age ranges/differences within each group. The second would be how Irene is describing attractiveness within the defendant, since everybody has a different belief on what makes a person physically attractive.

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