Attitudes Toward Law and Prisoners, Conservative Authoritarianism, Attribution, and Internal-External Locus of Control

Abstract

The purposes of this study were (a) to compare collectivistic Koreans' and individualistic Americans' attitudes toward law and prisoners with relative legal expertise as a moderator of culture effect and (b) to identify culture-dependent mediational variables (i.e., conservative authoritarianism, attribution, and locus of control) that may predict those attitudes. Four groups (Korean and American law students and undergraduates) were surveyed by a questionnaire. Cultural differences in legal attitudes were more remarkable between the undergraduates of two countries than between their law student counterparts. Korean undergraduates had less positive attitudes toward law than did Korean law students and had more positive attitudes toward prisoners than did American undergraduates. Koreans were more lenient to criminals and made more external attributions of crimes than did Americans. Altogether, internal locus of control and authoritarianism had strong positive effects on attitudes toward law, and authoritarianism and internal attribution had strong negative effects on attitudes toward prisoners.