Moore Celia, Pierce Lamar
Organisational Behaviour, London Business School London, UK.
Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis MO, USA.
Front Psychol. 2016 May 9;7:550. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00550. eCollection 2016.
This paper combines experimental and field data to examine how authorities with discretion over how rules are enforced penalize transgressors when the social context of the transgression elicits expectations of leniency. Specifically, we test how transgressors are punished when it is their birthday: a day that triggers expectations of lenient treatment. First, in three scenario studies we explore individuals' intuitions about how they would behave and expect to be treated if they transgressed on their birthdays, as well as how they would imagine penalizing a birthday transgressor. Second, using more than 134,000 arrest records for drunk driving in Washington State, we establish that police officers penalize drivers more harshly when it is their birthday. Then, in a lab experiment in which we grant participants discretion over enforcing the rules of an essay-writing contest, we test psychological reactance toward transgressors who make their birthday salient, even subtly, as the mechanism behind this increased stringency. We rule out several alternative explanations for this effect, including public safety concerns, negative affect and overcompensation for bias. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings for the literatures on punishment, rule-breaking, and legal transgressions.
本文结合了实验数据和实地数据，以研究在违规行为的社会背景引发从轻处罚期望的情况下，有权决定如何执行规则的当局如何惩罚违规者。具体而言，我们测试当违规者生日当天违规时会受到怎样的惩罚：生日这一天会引发从轻处理的期望。首先，在三项情景研究中，我们探讨了个体对于如果他们在生日当天违规会如何表现以及期望受到怎样的对待的直觉，以及他们会如何设想惩罚生日违规者。其次，利用华盛顿州超过134,000份酒驾逮捕记录，我们证实警察在司机生日当天会对其处罚更严厉。然后，在一项实验室实验中，我们赋予参与者执行一篇作文竞赛规则的决定权，我们测试了对于那些即使只是微妙地突出自己生日的违规者的心理抗拒，以此作为这种更严格处罚背后的机制。我们排除了对这种效应的几种替代解释，包括公共安全担忧、负面情绪以及对偏差的过度补偿。最后，我们讨论了我们的研究结果对惩罚、违规行为和法律犯罪相关文献的理论和实践意义。
