Abstract
The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between empathy and stringency of punishment in mock jurors. 291 law and non-law students (123 male, 166 female) participated in the study. Participants first read a court case explaining that the defendant was found guilty of aggravated assault. Participants then made a sentencing decision for the defendant and later answered the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). The results revealed a significant negative correlation between overall empathy and stringency of punishment. Two of the four sub-scales of the IRI (perspective taking and empathic concern) were of interest in the current study, and as hypothesized each showed a significant negative correlation with stringency of punishment.
Highlights
Mattias Per Sjöberg*The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between empathy and stringency of punishment in mock jurors. 291 law and non-law students (123 male, 166 female) participated in the study
There was a small negative correlation between the empathic concept of perspective taking (PT) and stringency of punishment, r = -.18, n = 255, p = .003, with high levels of perspective taking correlated with a shorter sentence length for the defendant
There was a small negative correlation between the empathic concept of empathic concern (EC) and stringency of punishment, r = -.19, n = 255, p = .002, with high levels of empathic concern associated with a shorter sentence length for the defendant
Summary
The aim of the present study is to investigate the relationship between empathy and stringency of punishment in mock jurors. 291 law and non-law students (123 male, 166 female) participated in the study. In order to ensure that the personal information that accompanied the court case did induce empathy, a small pilot study was conducted with 24 participants (17 females and seven males) who rated how much they empathized with a defendant who had committed a crime. Thirteen participants read a case about Michael (defendant 1) who committed an aggravated assault and was declared guilty by the Swedish court His personal information explained that he had grown up without his father and that he had been the victim of bullying in school. Eleven participants read a case about Marcus (defendant 2) who committed an aggravated assault and was declared guilty by the Swedish court His personal information explained that he had been sexually abused by his father from an early age and that he had found it difficult to find any close friends.
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