TY - GEN
T1 - What information shapes and shifts people's attitudes about capital punishment?
AU - Miske, Olivia
AU - Schweitzer, N. J.
AU - Horne, Zachary
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Cognitive Science Society: Creativity + Cognition + Computation, CogSci 2019.All rights reserved.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Although most Americans support capital punishment, many people have misconceptions about its efficacy and administration (e.g., that capital punishment deters crime). Can correcting people's inaccurate attitudes change their support for the death penalty? If not, are there other strategies that might shift people's attitudes about the death penalty? Some research suggests that statistical information can correct misconceptions about polarizing topics. Still, statistics might be irrelevant for some people because they may support capital punishment for purely retributive reasons, suggesting other argumentative strategies may be more effective. In Studies 1 and 2, we examined what attitudes shape endorsement of capital punishment and compared how two different interventions shifted these attitudes. Altogether, our findings suggest that attitudes about capital punishment are based on more than just retributive motives, and that correcting misconceptions related to its administration reduces support for capital punishment.
AB - Although most Americans support capital punishment, many people have misconceptions about its efficacy and administration (e.g., that capital punishment deters crime). Can correcting people's inaccurate attitudes change their support for the death penalty? If not, are there other strategies that might shift people's attitudes about the death penalty? Some research suggests that statistical information can correct misconceptions about polarizing topics. Still, statistics might be irrelevant for some people because they may support capital punishment for purely retributive reasons, suggesting other argumentative strategies may be more effective. In Studies 1 and 2, we examined what attitudes shape endorsement of capital punishment and compared how two different interventions shifted these attitudes. Altogether, our findings suggest that attitudes about capital punishment are based on more than just retributive motives, and that correcting misconceptions related to its administration reduces support for capital punishment.
KW - capital punishment
KW - coherence
KW - open science
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139433050&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85139433050&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85139433050
T3 - Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Creativity + Cognition + Computation, CogSci 2019
SP - 822
EP - 828
BT - Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
PB - The Cognitive Science Society
T2 - 41st Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society: Creativity + Cognition + Computation, CogSci 2019
Y2 - 24 July 2019 through 27 July 2019
ER -