An Eye for an Eye: Public Support for War Against Evildoers

Abstract

Retributiveness and humanitarianism, predispositions that shape individuals' moral judgment and criminal punishment attitudes, should also influence their positions on war against evil-seeming states. Retributiveness should heighten support for punitive uses of military force, satisfaction from punitive wars, and threats perceived from transgressor states, while humanitarianism should have the opposite effects. Using death penalty support as a proxy measure for these values, public opinion about the 1991 and 2003 Persian Gulf wars provides evidence for a moralpunitiveness effect. Death penalty supporters were significantly more hawkish than death penalty opponents in both cases, controlling for ideology, utilitarian logic, and other potential confounders. These findings explain why foreign villains and goodversus-evil framing heighten public support for war.

The fine line between interrogation and retribution

“…The present findings bear resemblance to research on the retributive nature of punishment, which has significant implications for hotly contested issues like the death penalty (Ellsworth & Ross, 1983), post-sentence civil commitment of sexual offenders (Carlsmith et al, 2007), and public support for preemptive war (Liberman, 2006;Liberman & Skitka, submitted for publication).…”

Affective Politics after 9/11

“…Wu Jianmin, a former PRC diplomat, also describes a strategic logic of calibration and display behind PRC behavior: "When a person is in their most desperate plight, if you express sympathy and condolences to them, they will not forget it … As you can see, diplomacy not 131. See Liberman 2006;andLiberman andSkitka 2008, 26. 132.…”

A Unified Theory of Value-Based Reasoning and U.S. Public Opinion

“…For cultural issues such as abortion and gay rights, beliefs about authority, conformity, tradition, tolerance, religion, and equality carry weight (Layman 2001;McCann 1997). In foreign affairs, beliefs about warfare, ethnocentrism, patriotism, social intolerance, conformity, militant and cooperative internationalism, isolationism, and retributive justice shape opinion (Chittick et al 1995; Peffley 1987, 1990;Liberman 2006). In short, at least 20 domain specific values are posited to drive opinion in the economic welfare, cultural issues and foreign policy domains.…”