A Cross-Cultural Study of Punishment Beliefs and Decisions

Abstract

The current research examined cultural similarities and differences in punishment beliefs and decisions. Participants were European Americans ( N = 50), Chinese Americans ( N = 57), and Chinese in Mainland China ( N = 50). The Functions of Punishment Questionnaire was used to measure participants' beliefs about the retributive or deterrent functions of punishment and a scenario method was used to measure the extent to which punishment decisions were driven by individuals' concerns for retribution or deterrence. The results indicated that, contrary to the hypothesis that the retributive function would be emphasized by individualistic groups and the deterrent function by collectivistic groups, Mainland Chinese participants had a stronger belief in retribution and a weaker belief in deterrence than did European and Chinese Americans. The results also indicated that retribution played a bigger role in punishment decisions for Chinese than for the other two groups, but the importance of the deterrence function in punishment decisions did not differ across the three groups. Finally, the correlation between interdependence orientation and the belief in retribution was positive for Chinese but negative for European Americans. Taken together, the findings provided little evidence that collectivists are more deterrence-oriented and individualists more retribution-oriented.

Retribution as hierarchy regulation: Hierarchy preferences moderate the effect of offender socioeconomic status on support for retribution

“…To clarify the unique status-based motives behind retribution, the next study also included a measure of deterrent justice orientation. Deterrence is a reason for punishing that is commonly contrasted with retribution (e.g., Husak, 2016;Zhang, Chen, Greenberger, & Knowles, 2017). It is argued to be 'forward-looking' (Sifferd, 2016) and as aiming at 'controlling the individual' (e.g., Blumstein, Cohen, & Nagin, 1978;Ehrlich, 1981).…”

Towards a Cognitive Science of the Human: Cross-Cultural Approaches and Their Urgency

“…The new wave has also seen a growing body of work in experimental philosophy, examining, for example, cultural variation in the degree to which peoples' moral judgments focus on intentions versus outcomes, the deontological/consequentialist distinction, attitudes about punishment, and attitudes towards various moral values (e.g., obeying authority, avoiding harm, maintaining purity) [122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132]. Morality is a difficult domain to study because of its complexity, but the new wave is beginning to reveal both universals and variation in moral judgment.…”

Morality, punishment, and revealing other people’s secrets.

“…It is likely that culture would moderate the present results, and thus future work would benefit from exploring these effects through a cultural lens. For example, cultural differences in attitudes toward punishment (e.g., Eriksson et al, 2017; Feinberg et al, 2019; Zhang et al, 2017) as well as norms surrounding telling other people’s secrets would likely moderate the present results. Recruiting more inclusive samples (e.g., across culture, race, ethnicity) would also help test whether these results generalize beyond participants living the United States who were largely White.…”