Abstract The way people perceive and think about crime and punishment is a central aspect of normative culture and formal social control. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the role played by malleability beliefs and psychological distance in the public’s punitive attitudes. To address these goals, we employed a 2X2 factorial experimental design, on a random stratified sample, in which we manipulated malleability beliefs about individuals (i.e., belief that personal character is fixed, nonmalleable, or belief that character is malleable and can be changed and developed) and psychological distance (i.e., people’s subjective experience that something is close or far away from the self). In order to examine the interactive effect of malleability beliefs and psychological distance on participants’ punitive attitudes, a two-way ANOVA was performed on a sample of 190 participants. Our findings revealed that participants who were exposed to the malleability beliefs condition had a significantly more positive attitude toward rehabilitative and restorative alternatives to incarceration than participants who were exposed to the fixed beliefs condition. Moreover, results revealed significant interaction between the effects of malleability beliefs and psychological distance levels on participants’ attitudes toward rehabilitative and restorative alternatives.

中文翻译：

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心理距离对可延展性信念对公众惩罚态度的影响的调节作用

摘要人们对犯罪和惩罚的看法和思考方式是规范文化和正式社会控制的重要方面。这项研究旨在深入了解可延展性信念和心理距离在公众惩罚性态度中的作用。为了实现这些目标，我们在随机分层的样本上采用了2X2阶乘实验设计，其中我们操纵了关于个人的可塑性信念（即，对人格的看法是固定的，不可改变的，或者对人格的看法是可塑的并且可以改变的，发达的）和心理距离（即人们对某事物的亲近或远离自我的主观体验）。为了研究可延展性信念和心理距离对参与者惩罚态度的互动影响，对190名参与者进行了两次方差分析。我们的研究结果表明，暴露于可塑性信念条件的参与者比接受固定信念条件的参与者对康复和恢复性替代监禁的态度更为积极。此外，研究结果表明，可延展性信念和心理距离水平对参与者对康复和恢复性选择的态度之间存在显着的相互作用。我们的研究结果表明，暴露于可塑性信念条件的参与者比接受固定信念条件的参与者对康复和恢复性替代监禁的态度更为积极。此外，研究结果表明，可延展性信念和心理距离水平对参与者对康复和恢复性选择的态度之间存在显着的相互作用。我们的研究结果表明，暴露于可塑性信念条件的参与者比接受固定信念条件的参与者对康复和恢复性替代监禁的态度更为积极。此外，研究结果表明，可延展性信念和心理距离水平对参与者对康复和恢复性选择的态度之间存在显着的相互作用。