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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
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Less Thought, More Punishment: Need for Cognition Predicts Support for Punitive Responses to Crime

Michael J. Sargent

Bates College, msargent{at}bates.edu

Three studies examined the relationship between need for cognition and support for punitive responses to crime. The results of Study 1 (N = 110) indicated that individuals high in need for cognition were less supportive of punitive measures than their low need for cognition counterparts. This finding was replicated in Study 2 (N = 1,807), which employed a nationally representative probability sample and included a more extensive battery of control variables. The purpose of Study 3 (N = 255) was to identify a third variable that might explain this relationship. This final study’s results suggest that attributional complexity mediates the relationship between need for cognition and punitiveness. High need for cognition individuals are less supportive of punitive measures because they endorse more complex attributions for human behavior than their low need for cognition peers.

Key Words: need for cognition • attitudes • punishment • crime • attributional complexity

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 11, 1485-1493 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167204264481
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