THE EFFECTS OF GROUP MEMBERSHIP AND PERCEIVED HUMANNESS OF VICTIMS ON MOTIVES FOR PUNISHMENT AND JUSTICE DECISIONS
(2019) Hellenic Journal of Psychology — (2019)
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- Abstract
- Information about a victim’s emotional state influences observers’ justice-providing reactions. This study (N = 124) tested people’s motives for distribution of justice depending on whether emotions with differential social value were experienced by a victim. Uniquely human (UH) emotions are highly valued compared to non-uniquely human (NUH) emotions as they differentiate humans from animals. Moreover, people attribute UH emotions more to ingroup than to outgroup members. Such a bias, however, does not occur regarding NUH emotions. During judgmental processes, motives for punishment may vary depending on whether the main goal is to punish past harm-doing (i.e., retributive motives for punishment), integrate harm-doers to the society and help them correct their behavior (i.e., restorative motives for punishment), or control harm-doer’s future behavior through deterring or incapacitative practices (i.e., utilitarian motives for punishment). In line with our hypothesis, UH, as compared to NUH negative emotions of victims, triggered observer’s utilitarian motives for punishment. Moreover, utilitarian motives were activated when ingroup victims experienced UH rather than NUH emotions. Unexpectedly, when outgroup victims experienced NUH negative emotions, utilitarian punishments were also triggered. Finally, as expected, emotions (UH as compared to NUH) and group membership (ingroup versus outgroup) of the victims had no effect on either retributive or restorative motives. Key words: Infrahumanization, Intergroup relations, Justice, Punishment, Retributive motives, Restorative motives, Utilitarian motives
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Fousiani Kyriaki, & Demoulin, S. (2019). THE EFFECTS OF GROUP MEMBERSHIP AND PERCEIVED HUMANNESS OF VICTIMS ON MOTIVES FOR PUNISHMENT AND JUSTICE DECISIONS. Hellenic Journal of Psychology. Submitted. (Original work published 2019)