True-Self Attributes and Judgments of Blame

In a series of studies, CSMRE faculty affiliate Rebecca J. Schlegel joined with colleagues to examine the degree to which people attribute criminals’ actions as a reflection of the person’s true self, and whether such attributions impacted their preferences for punishments. They found that considering actions as a reflection of the criminal’s “true self” was related to blaming them for addiction-related crimes. Drug-related crimes were considered less blameworthy than other infractions. The authors concluded: “our studies suggest that lay intuitions about true selves robustly guide people’s judgments about blame in the context of crimes involving drug-addicted offenders.”

Maffly-Kipp, J., Flanagan, P. N., Schlegel, R. J., Vess, M., Flanagan, P., & Vess, R. J. S. M. (2022). True Self-Attributions Shape Judgments of Blame in the Context of Addiction-Relevant Crime. Addictive Behaviors. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2022.107287