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Let’s Watch the Video—and Confirm Our Prejudices
Pacific Standard: “Let’s look at the tape” has become our go-to response for determining the truth of an ambiguous situation. With video recorders tracking everything from baseball games to riots, it seems natural to take
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How racism shapes prison policy
The Boston Globe: WHY DOES AMERICA incarcerate so much of its population compared to other first-world countries? New research from psychologists at Stanford University suggests that some of our toughness on crime may be driven by
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Seeing More Blacks in Prison Increases Support for Policies that Exacerbate Inequality
Informing the public about African Americans’ disproportionate incarceration rate may actually bolster support for punitive policies that perpetuate inequality, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological
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Minimizing Belief in Free Will May Lessen Support for Criminal Punishment
Exposure to information that diminishes free will, including brain-based accounts of behavior, seems to decrease people’s support for retributive punishment, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Are Death Row Inmates Innocent If They Refuse a Last Meal?
Pacific Standard: In May 2007, Philip Workman, soon to be executed by the state of Tennessee for murdering a police officer, was asked what he wanted for his final meal. Workman, who claimed he had
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The Case Against Brain Scans As Evidence In Court
NPR: It’s not just people who go on trial these days. It’s their brains. More and more lawyers are arguing that some defendants deserve special consideration because they have brains that are immature or impaired