Punishment Reactions to Powerful Suspects: Comparing a "corrupt" Versus a "leniency" Approach of Power

Kyriaki Fousiani*, Jan Willem Van Prooijen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This study aimed to replicate the intuitive retributivism hypothesis, according to which people s punitive sentiments are predominantly driven by retributive concerns. Contrary to prior research that focuses on how people punish offenders, this study investigated how people punish individuals suspected of immoralities. Moreover, we manipulated a suspect's power level (high/low/undefined) and stated contrasting hypotheses (the "power corrupts" approach vs. the "power leniency" approach) regarding the impact of power on punishment motives. Finally, we investigated the mediating role of recidivism and guilt likelihood in these effects. The results replicated the intuitive retributivism hypothesis and revealed the robustness of this effect. Moreover, in line with the "power corrupts" approach, we found that the role of utilitarian (but not retributive or restorative) motives is stronger in the punishment of powerful suspects as opposed to powerless ones. Unexpectedly, neither guilt likelihood nor recidivism of a suspect mediated the effects of power on punishment motives.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)164-173
Number of pages10
JournalZeitschrift fur Psychologie = Journal of Psychology
Volume230
Issue number2
Early online date1 Apr 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Hogrefe Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. All rights reserved.

Funding

The authors wish to thank the PsychLab of the ZPID – Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information, Trier, Germany, for funding the data collection of this study.

Keywords

  • motives for punishment
  • power
  • restoration
  • retribution
  • utilitarianism

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