Effect of Belief in Free Will on the Intensity of Third-Party Punishment

Abstract

The institutionalized criminal justice mechanisms are built on two psychological and social traits: third-party punishment (TPP) and belief in free will (BFW). TPP is the administration of a sanction to a transgressor by an individual not affected by the transgression. BFW posits that humans are in control of their actions. Previous studies have indicated that BFW influences TPP. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the level of BFW has an impact on the magnitude of punishment in TPP tasks. Furthermore, it questions whether the degree of affective arousal of the punisher creates an additional effect on the magnitude of the punishment. Our basic hypothesis is that the BFW and punishment magnitude are positively correlated. We also hypothesize that the expected positive correlation between BFW and punishment magnitude will be more manifest in low-affect scenarios than in high-affect ones. Participants (N = 726) were given 49 hypothetical crime scenarios categorized as low- and high-affect cases. Upon reading each scenario, the participants were tasked to attribute a penalty between the two given options. Our results showed that the level of BFW was positively correlated with the degree of punishment administered in the hypothetical crime scenarios and that the average punishment magnitude for participants with a low level of BFW increased in the high-affect crime scenarios. We assume that our results would shed light on the underlying causes of public reactions to criminal sentencing policies, thus helping lawmakers in enacting better regulations in this respect. 2025. Çakar, T., Akyürek, G., Erözden, O., Şahin, T., Keskin, İ. N., Ünlü, M., Özen, D. H. & Özen, Z.