Department of Economics, New Economic School, Moscow, Russia.
Department of Economics, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France.
Nat Hum Behav. 2023 Jun;7(6):874-880. doi: 10.1038/s41562-023-01547-3. Epub 2023 Mar 13.
We estimate the impact of the Ramadan fasting ritual on criminal sentencing decisions in Pakistan and India from half a century of daily data. We use random case assignment and exogenous variation in fasting intensity during Ramadan due to the rotating Islamic calendar and the geographical latitude of the district courts to document the large effects of Ramadan fasting on decision-making. Our sample comprises roughly a half million cases and 10,000 judges from Pakistan and India. Ritual intensity increases Muslim judges' acquittal rates, lowers their appeal and reversal rates, and does not come at the cost of increased recidivism or heightened outgroup bias. Overall, our results indicate that the Ramadan fasting ritual followed by a billion Muslims worldwide induces more lenient decisions.
我们利用半个世纪的日度数据，评估了斋月斋戒仪式对巴基斯坦和印度刑事判决的影响。我们采用随机案件分配和斋月期间斋戒强度的外生变化（由于伊斯兰教历的旋转和区法院的地理纬度）来记录斋月斋戒对决策的重大影响。我们的样本包括来自巴基斯坦和印度的大约 50 万起案件和 1 万名法官。仪式强度提高了穆斯林法官的无罪释放率，降低了他们的上诉和推翻率，而且不会增加累犯率或加剧对外群体的偏见。总的来说，我们的结果表明，全世界有 10 亿穆斯林遵循的斋月斋戒仪式会导致更宽松的判决。
