The Power of Story: Assessing Crime Attribution before and After Watching Videos of Incarcerated People Serving Life Without Parole Sentences
摘要
To test the impacts of watching an interview of an incarcerated person serving a life without parole sentence on participants’ views of crime attribution.
MethodsSurvey participants answered questions related to several topics, including crime attribution, before and after watching a randomly-assigned video of an incarcerated person discussing their personal narrative. Videos varied according to the race of the incarcerated person and their self-described personal circumstances before arrest.
ResultsVideos where difficult circumstances were presented or where the subject was Black elicited more situational views of crime. Political Independents also held more situational views post-intervention. Before any intervention, men, Republicans, older people, and wealthier people held more dispositional views of crime, whereas Atheists held much more situational views.
ConclusionsVideos depicting the lived experiences of incarcerated people can change public attribution style, but only when the video depicts a person whose criminality can be linked to their personal circumstances.