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In the name of democracy: The value of democracy explains leniency towards wrongdoings as a function of group political organization
Author(s) -
Pereira Andrea,
FalomirPichastor Juan Manuel,
Berent Jacques,
Staerklé Christian,
Butera Fabrizio
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
european journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1099-0992
pISSN - 0046-2772
DOI - 10.1002/ejsp.2081
Subject(s) - democracy , ideology , legitimacy , value (mathematics) , politics , psychology , social psychology , economic justice , retributive justice , function (biology) , law and economics , criminology , law , political science , sociology , machine learning , evolutionary biology , computer science , biology
According to the “democracy‐as‐value” hypothesis, democracy has become an ideological belief system providing social value to democratic individuals, groups and institutions, granting legitimacy to their actions (even if dishonest or violent), and protecting them from consecutive punishments. The present research investigates the extent to which this legitimizing process is based on the individual endorsement of democratic principles. Across four experiments, following the misdeed of a (few) group member(s), respondents who valued democratic group organization and democracy in general expressed more lenient retributive justice judgments towards democratic (as compared with nondemocratic) offender groups. These findings shed light on the ways in which democratic ideology infuses justice judgments. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.