Not That Important Why You Did It: Causal Attribution Matters Less for Interdependent People in Judgment of Blame, Punishment, Rehabilitation, and Perceived Likelihood of Reintegration

People in interdependent cultures explain others’ behavior less through internal traits and more through external situations than those in independent cultures. Criminal justice research suggests that this should make people more lenient. They should blame less, punish less, support rehabilitation more, and perceive offenders to have less risk to re-offend. Yet, studies across cultures contradict this theoretical prediction. We address this contradiction by proposing the idea that culture shapes how much people consider the causal attribution of offenders’ behaviors. Across two studies, compared to those from independent cultures (i.e., European Americans), participants from interdependent cultures (i.e., Asians/Asian Americans) relied less on their causal attribution when determining blame (Studies 1A, 1B), as well as punishment, support for rehabilitation, and likelihood of offenders’ re-offense (Studies 2A, 2B). Next, we asked people how well they thought offenders could reintegrate into society after they had received punishment and underwent rehabilitation (Study 3). Causal attributions for offenders’ past crimes still had more influence on European Americans’ reintegration predictions than those of Asians/Asian Americans. Together, these studies suggest that culture shapes not just the types of attributions people make but also how much they consider those attributions when they decide how to respond to criminal acts.