Support for the death penalty is moral, not evidence-based for either side

Evidence

In the final analysis, empirical findings do not change people’s minds regarding the death penalty. Many advocates say that they would still support the death penalty even if it was demonstrated conclusively to have no deterrent effect (Vidmar & Ellsworth, 1974). As shown in the poll cited earlier (Newport, 2011), they seek retribution and vengeance. Deterrence is low on their list. Conversely, abolitionists say they would oppose capital punishment even if it was demonstrated conclusively to deter homicides. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1966

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• XREF: Connects to the research showing people’s policy preferences are identity-expressive rather than evidence-driven — polarization research and motivated reasoning literature.

Related

• Support for capital punishment rests on retribution, not deterrence evidence (similarity 0.93)
• US public support for the death penalty fell sharply from 2007 to 2012 (similarity 0.87)
• Death penalty support splits sharply along party, gender, age, and race lines (similarity 0.87)
• Death penalty positions rest on retributive, economic, or rights-based rationales (similarity 0.85)
• Death penalty deterrence claims cannot be supported by existing research (similarity 0.85)
• Death penalty support correlates with a general threat-oriented mindset (similarity 0.84)
• The death-penalty deterrence question resists controlled experiments because society cannot randomize executions. (similarity 0.84)
• Moral disengagement mediates the link between demographics and death penalty support (similarity 0.84)
• The US is virtually alone among developed nations in still applying the death penalty (similarity 0.83)
• US death penalty support swung from opposition to 80% peak (similarity 0.83)
• U.S. death penalty support is declining toward de facto abolition (similarity 0.83)
• Belief in execution’s ineffectiveness or unfairness does not reduce support for it (similarity 0.83)
• Measuring death penalty support depends heavily on whether alternatives are offered. (similarity 0.83)
• Belief in wrongful executions does not reduce death penalty support (similarity 0.83)
• Death-penalty deterrence cannot be tested through randomized experiments (similarity 0.82)