ReviewBehavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland)2025
Why Motive Matters: The Appraisal of Criminal Aims.
Review in Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
In a strict legal sense, motive is often irrelevant in U.S. criminal law. Whether one smothered their grandmother with a pillow to ease her pain or to fraudulently collect her social security benefits, they are legally guilty of murder all the same. Yet anyone who has watched a courtroom drama or sat in the jury box knows the prominent role that establishing motive seems to play in influencing legal decision-makers. Why is motive so pivotal, so psychologically powerful for most people? We briefly review the existing literature on the psychology of motive, then introduce an adaptationist framework as a new lens for examining this question. In particular, we consider how motive assists perceivers in inferring actors' welfare trade-off ratios, with important implications for legal judgments and willingness to punish.
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