The Relationship Between Judgments of Evil and Punishment Judgments.

ABSTRACT: What consequences result from judging a given act (or its perpetrator) as evil? Because evil actions represent the worst possible forms of immorality, and that on some conceptions evil people are irredeemable, it stands to reason that judgments of evil would predict severe punishments. However, surprisingly little is known about precisely how judgments of evil relate to judgments of punishment. We theorized that judgments of evilness should add unique predictive value beyond comparable, and more widely studied, measures of wrongness, blame, and moral character. In a preregistered study, participants (N = 238) made moral judgments and punishment recommendations in response to a comprehensive range of wrongs (e.g., theft, battery, manslaughter, murder). Results revealed three general finding

SUBMITTER: Wheat R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12576864 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature