An experimental investigation on implicit process of ordinary citizens' determination of punishment

Abstract

We verified the hypothesis that an individual's retributive strategy is activated implicitly when he/she is presented with the opportunity to determine punishment. Participants were asked to complete the IAT before and after being presented with the image of a brutal crime. Because it is assumed that retributive strategy weighs the seriousness of the crime against the severity of punishment, we predicted that the activation of retributive strategy would strengthen the association with a balanced combination of the crime seriousness and the punishment severity and increase the IAT effect. The result showed that the IAT effect increased and supported the hypothesis.