ISSEP-2025-14
GRANT ID#: ISSEP-2025-14
GRANT TITLE: Self-Connectedness and Punishment over Time
GRANTEE: Columbia University
PRIMARY INVESTIGATOR: Christian Mott
GRANT AMOUNT: USD $3,000
DURATION OF GRANT PROJECT: May 01, 2025 – April 30, 2026
Description of the Project
Executive summary:
Questions of personal identity are unavoidable when punishing someone for a past act. On traditional theories of punishment (Hart, 1967), punishment is appropriate only when the person receiving punishment is the same person who committed the act. But another dimension of personal identity becomes relevant when the punishment itself is extended in time – e.g., incarceration for years. In such cases, a punishment that was appropriate when imposed only remains appropriate to the extent that the recipient remains the same person who committed the act. People treat a graded form of identity – psychological connectedness, which can decrease over time (Mott, 2018; Parfit, 1984) – as a necessary condition for punishment appropriateness. This project investigates how judgments of connectedness affect judgments about punishment length. A pilot study suggests that this relationship may depend on the relative temporal locations of the punisher and the crime. This project will explore a mechanism underlying that dependence.
Study 1 will use a use a 2 (temporal perspective: forward vs. backward) x 2 (connectedness: low vs. no change) between-subjects design. The first factor will be present a wrong as occurring in the recent past with a young defendant or distant past with a middle-age defendant. The second factor will manipulate connectedness judgments, with either a low connectedness or a no change condition. Then, we will measure participants' ratings of connectedness and punishment in all conditions. Study 2 will use a 2 (temporal perspective: forward vs. backward) x 2 (connectedness: low vs. no change) x 3 (purpose: incapacitation vs. expression vs. participant choice) design, with the latter providing three different punishment judgments with the order of the first two counterbalanced: (1) the amount of punishment necessary to express the right amount of outrage at the wrongdoer’s conduct; (2) the amount punishment necessary to protect the community from the wrongdoer; and (3) the amount of punishment they would choose to impose.
Itemized budget:
Grant funding will cover the expenses detailed below:
The entire budget of $3,000 will go towards compensating 1,000 participants (evenly divided across two studies) $2.25 for 15 minutes of their time (an average compensation of $9 per hour) and paying Prolific’s 1/3 platform fees.
The total amount approved for this project is USD $3,000.