The roles of empathy, anger, and gender in predicting attitudes toward punitive, reparative, and preventative public policies

Abstract

Four studies tested for gender differences in support for punitive policies, reparative human services, and preventative social policies, and explored potential emotional and attitudinal mediators of differences that were found. In Study 1, participants' relative preferences for punitive, reparative human service, and preventative political actions were measured. Women preferred human service actions more than did men, and men preferred punitive and preventative actions more than did women. Study 2 found that men support punitive political policies more than do women. Study 3 found that again, men supported punitive actions more than did women, and women supported human service actions more than did men, and that among men, state anger predicted support for punitive actions, and among women, state empathy predicted willingness to volunteer. In Study 4, among both men and women state anger predicted support for punitive actions, and trait empathy predicted support for human service actions. Trait empathy mediated the gender difference found in support for human service actions. Results provide evidence that emotional dispositions and reactions play an important role in shaping political attitudes, and more specifically, that gender differences in emotion influence gender differences in policy preferences.