2020
DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3524910
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'It's Not About the Money. It's About Sending a Message!': Unpacking the Components of Revenge

Abstract: We examine whether belief-based preferences-caring about what transgressors believe-play a crucial role in punishment decisions: Do punishers want to make sure that transgressors understand why they are being punished, and is this desire to affect beliefs often prioritized over distributive and retributive preferences? We test whether punishers derive utility from three distinct sources: material outcomes (their own and the transgressor's payoff), affective states (the transgressor's suffering), and cognitive … Show more

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Cited by 8 publications
(11 citation statements)
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References 86 publications
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“…Our findings both replicate and qualify the “intuitive retributivism” hypothesis, according to which people, when thinking about appropriate punishment for another person’s wrongdoing, are concerned with re-balancing the scales of justice. Our results are also consistent with other empirical research showing that cues of understanding, remorse and apology increase punishment satisfaction (Bauer & Poama, 2020; Funk et al, 2014; Gollwitzer & Denzler, 2009; Gollwitzer et al, 2011; Molnar et al, 2020). These findings suggest the psychological plausibility of communicative theories of punishment, which argue that the goals of punishment are to send a message to perpetrators that they have violated a community norm or law and that they must respond appropriately with regret, apology, and ideally offers of reparation and attempts at rehabilitation.…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 92%
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“…Our findings both replicate and qualify the “intuitive retributivism” hypothesis, according to which people, when thinking about appropriate punishment for another person’s wrongdoing, are concerned with re-balancing the scales of justice. Our results are also consistent with other empirical research showing that cues of understanding, remorse and apology increase punishment satisfaction (Bauer & Poama, 2020; Funk et al, 2014; Gollwitzer & Denzler, 2009; Gollwitzer et al, 2011; Molnar et al, 2020). These findings suggest the psychological plausibility of communicative theories of punishment, which argue that the goals of punishment are to send a message to perpetrators that they have violated a community norm or law and that they must respond appropriately with regret, apology, and ideally offers of reparation and attempts at rehabilitation.…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 92%
“…This difference in satisfaction emerged even among participants who did not reduce their own sentencing recommendation. This pattern of results conceptually replicates the “understanding effect” that previous research has found (Funk et al, 2014; Gollwitzer & Denzler, 2009; Gollwitzer et al, 2011; Molnar et al., 2020).…”
Section: Discussionsupporting
confidence: 88%
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“…In the absence of such an acknowledgment, punishers are dissatisfied with the punishment no matter how strong of a cost it levies on the target (Funk, McGeer, & Gollwitzer, 2014). In fact, even those punishers who typically punish harshly will willingly punish less severely if that would allow the target to better understand their intent (Molnar, Chaudhry, Loewenstein, 2020). As these findings PUNISHMENT AS COMMUNICATION demonstrate, the desire to communicate one's beliefs, values, and disapproval plays a central role in the kind of punishment a punisher chooses to enact.…”
Section: The Psychology Of Punishmentmentioning
confidence: 99%