Authoritarians punish criminals partly out of disgust and personal satisfaction

Evidence

RWA scores have often predicted the length of prison terms hypothetically imposed upon persons convicted of crimes. Among Manitoba students, the correlation for overall sentences in a ten-trial survey usually ran between . and .50. Follow-up questioning revealed that, compared with Lows, High RWAs believed the crimes had been more serious, and they also had more faith that punishment would change the criminals’ behavior. But Highs also revealed, when answering anonymously, that they found criminals more repulsive and disgusting than Lows did, and felt personal pleasure and satisfaction at being able to punish wrongdoers (RWA, pp. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 294

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the punitive-moral-emotion thread in Haidt’s moral foundations work where disgust and authority both load on the same foundation.