OUTLOOK
The Psychology of State Punishment
Jordan Wylie,
Connie P. Y. Chiu,
Nicolette M. Dakin,
William Cunningham,
Ana Gantman,
Jordan Wylie
Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Boston, College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
Search for more papers by this authorConnie P. Y. Chiu
Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York City, New York, USA
Search for more papers by this authorNicolette M. Dakin
Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York City, New York, USA
Search for more papers by this authorWilliam Cunningham
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Ana Gantman
Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York City, New York, USA
Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Correspondence: Ana Gantman ([email protected])
Search for more papers by this authorJordan Wylie,
Connie P. Y. Chiu,
Nicolette M. Dakin,
William Cunningham,
Ana Gantman,
Jordan Wylie
Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Boston, College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA
Search for more papers by this authorConnie P. Y. Chiu
Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York City, New York, USA
Search for more papers by this authorNicolette M. Dakin
Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York City, New York, USA
Search for more papers by this authorWilliam Cunningham
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Ana Gantman
Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York City, New York, USA
Department of Psychology, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Correspondence: Ana Gantman ([email protected])
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 19 February 2025
ABSTRACT
A significant amount of punishment that happens in society is state punishment, that is, third-party punishment carried out by an organized political community in response to a rule violation. We argue that a complete psychology of punishment must consider state punishment as a distinct form. State punishment is a unique type of punishment because it is a special case of third-party punishment, pre-specified to occur after the violation of official rules and policies, carried out by people acting on behalf of a nation or government. State punishment, especially as compared to interpersonal punishment, is regarded as a legitimate form of violence, which communicates not just disapproval but information about procedures and power. Moreover, state punishment is made possible by state rules, which, unlike norms, are formalized, can be fully articulated and are perfectly transmissible across generations. We end the paper with implications for the psychology of punishment more broadly and future directions for better understanding the unique psychology of state punishment.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Open Research
Data Availability Statement
We did not collect new data for this invited Outlook submission. As a result, we have neither an ethics statement to share about it nor links to the materials, code and codebook or any pre-registrations to share here or in the Methods section.
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