On sanction-goal justifications: How and why deterrence justifications undermine rule compliance.
Open accessAbstract
Authorities frequently justify their sanctions as attempts to deter people from rule breaking. Although providing a sanction justification seems appealing and harmless, we propose that a deterrence justification decreases the extent to which sanctions are effective in promoting rule compliance. We develop a theoretical model that specifies how and why this occurs. Consistent with our model, 5 experiments demonstrated that-compared with sanctions provided without a justification or sanctions provided with a just-deserts justification-sanction effectiveness decreased when sanctions were justified as attempts to deter people from rule breaking. This effect was mediated by people feeling distrusted by the authority. We further demonstrated that (a) the degree to which deterrence fostered distrust was attenuated when the sanction was targeted at others (instead of the participant) and (b) the degree to which distrust undermined rule compliance was attenuated when the authority was perceived as legitimate. We discuss the practical implications for authorities tasked with promoting rule compliance, and the theoretical implications for the literature on sanctions, distrust, and rule compliance. (PsycINFO Database Record
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Mooijman, M., van Dijk, W. W., van Dijk, E., & Ellemers, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Southern California (US)
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Mooijman, Marlon
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2017-04
- Volume
- 112
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 577-588
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2558157296
- Cited by
- 36
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 10.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- dspace.library.uu.nl
- Licence
- other-oa
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
- Keywords
- deterrence, rule compliance, sanctions, distrust, perceived legitimacy, sanctions effectiveness
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Female, Goals, Humans, Deception, Male, Middle Aged, Motivation, Punishment, Social Behavior, Trust, Young Adult
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