REACTIONS TO PENALTIES FOR AN OFFENSE IN RELATION TO AUTHORITARIANISM, VALUES, PERCEIVED RESPONSIBILITY, PERCEIVED SERIOUSNESS, AND DESERVINGNESS

Two studies involving participants from metropolitan Adelaide, South A ustralia(Study 1: N = 220, Study 2: N = 181) examined variables that w ere assumed to influence cognitive and affective reactions to penaltie s imposed for offenses relating to domestic violence, plagiarism, and shoplifting (in Study 1), and resisting a police order in a protest ag ainst logging (in Study 2). Results of path analyses supported a model that assumed paths linking perceived responsibility to the perceived seriousness of an offense; responsibility and seriousness to deserving ness of the penalty; deservingness to the perceived harshness of the p enalty, to reported positive affect about the penalty, and to reported sympathy for the offender; and perceived harshness of the penalty to reported positive affect and sympathy. Right-wing authoritarianism and relevant values had direct effects on perceived seriousness consisten t with the assumption that values affect the way an offense is constru ed in relation to its negative valence or aversiveness. Deservingness had a central role as a mediator of reactions.