The Effect of True Self-Attributions on the Endorsement of Retributive and Restorative Justice

Abstract

We examined how the attribution of criminal behavior to an individual’s “true” self influences justice preferences. In Study 1 ( N = 521), the extent to which undergraduates attributed a crime to a target’s true self positively predicted their endorsement of a retributive form of punishment and negatively predicted their endorsement of a restorative form of punishment. Study 2 ( N = 404) was preregistered and replicated these associations, even when controlling for other perceived causes (e.g., personality, environment). In Study 3 ( N = 282), undergraduates rated retributive punishment more favorably and restorative punishment less favorably when induced to think that the crime was (vs. was not) reflective of the target’s true self. Study 4 ( N = 935) was preregistered and replicated these experimental effects across different types of crime vignettes in an online sample. These results highlight the ways that intuitions about “true” selves shape punishment preferences.

Self-essentialist reasoning underlies the similarity-attraction effect.

“…Moreover, these attitudes and behaviors should remain stable given the immutable nature of an essence—to suddenly become Kim’s prodeath penalty metalhead friend would to no longer be a person like me . The extant research has primarily explored how such self-essentialist beliefs foster intrapersonal well-being by serving as an uncertainty-reducing reasoning heuristic through which to understand social reality (e.g., Christy et al, 2019; Chu & Lowery, 2023; Dulaney et al, 2019; although see Maffly-Kipp et al, 2022; Newman et al, 2014). In other words, this work has emphasized self-essentialist reasoning as a way of thinking that creates the feeling of confidence and certainty in one’s grasp upon social reality, resulting in psychological well-being.…”

“…However, this research has not explicitly examined how such a mode of category representation about the self might influence the inferences and judgments we make about social targets (cf. De Freitas & Cikara, 2018; Maffly-Kipp et al, 2022; Newman et al, 2015).…”