Perceptions of Altruistic and Criminal Behavior

Abstract

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in the psychology of good and evil (Miller, 2005). While the study of altruistic behavior is primarily the domain of social psychologists, criminologists and psychopathologists focus on antisocial behavior, making theoretical synthesis and connections of the two constructs difficult. The present study sought to determine whether the same dispositional variables that govern perceptions of altruistic behavior (judgments of prosocial behavior) also govern perceptions of crime (judgments of antisocial behavior) despite the behaviors having distinct etiologies.