The protestant work ethic, expectancy violations, and criminal sentencing

To test the hypothesis that endorsement of the Protestant work ethic would be related positively to sensitivity to criminal behavior that violated expectations, American college Students (N = 159) read scenarios describing a crime committed by a typical or an atypical offender. After answering questions about the crime, they completed Mirels and Garrett's (1971) Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) scale. Extent of punishment was positively related to PWE for atypical criminal behavior. Yet, high PWEs also were more likely to perceive an affluent criminal as experiencing greater remorse for a blue-collar crime than a white-collar crime. We relate our results to perceptions of criminal behavior, information-processing tendencies among individuals endorsing the PWE, and jury selection considerations.