People Judge Future Actions More Harshly Than Past Actions
In three studies, we demonstrate that people judge the same behavior as more intentional when it will be performed in the future than when it has been performed in the past… Because of its heightened intentionality, people thought the same transgression deserved more severe punishment when it would occur in the future than when it did occur in the past …
Affect alone was not sufficient to explain why future transgressions warranted harsher punishment than past transgressions. … Even mundane behaviors (e.g., watering plants) are rated as more intentional in the future than the past, and that the temporal asymmetry is larger for relatively more intentional actions than relatively less intentional ones. (more; HT Tyler)
Study. HT: Tyler via Robin Hanson.
Ah, intent. Is not the difference between negligent manslaughter and first degree murder?
Errors made in the past were an oversight. Errors committed in the future are premeditated. Isn’t there an old saying It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than to get permission? This just confirms the old saying.
Interesting…
Presuming this future act could yet be prevented and the past occurrence was not accidental, then premeditation would apply.
I think that people probably don’t judge past actions as harshly (in the case of the first experiment, they don’t suspect their “partner” of cheating) is because we can’t control the past: what’s done is done. While we can try to intervene against cheating (or crime, etc) in the future, if something has already happened, we seem to try to cope with it by explaining it (the die just happened to land on 5) rather than being skeptical (what if she tries to make it land on 5?).
The study makes sense because what people think about before they act typically comes out of their intentions. After an action has occurred, however, people have hindsight and they can see how various variables leading to that action affected what ended up happening.
This makes sense. There was a study indicating that people’s memory of the past changes to what they want to believe happened (read here ), which could also explain why people judge the future more harshly.
The key element is ‘time.’ The transgressor put the time in, and had the time to, understand the possible impact of the transgression. When time is invested in a future transgression, people tend to believe that those involved are clear on their desire for a successful outcome. A different perspective is the positive correlation between time spent studying for an exam (to be performed in the future) and the outcome.
Or, to put it another way, sunk costs don’t matter.
Makes sense. People are more willing to forgive emotion than calculation.