{
  "id": 12134548,
  "title": "Crime videos push liberal voters toward stricter laws but not the political right",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/05/crime-videos-push-liberal-voters-toward-stricter-laws-but-not-the",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-05T11:00:33.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PsyPost",
    "slug": "psypost",
    "url": "https://www.psypost.org/crime-videos-push-liberal-voters-toward-stricter-laws-but-not-the-political-righ/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "When shown videos of local retail crime, voters in a strongly liberal city adopted stricter, more conservative positions on criminal justice policies. However, their overall political identities and ideological leanings remained unchanged. This study, published in The Journal of Social Psychology, explored the concept of terror management theory which posits that reminders of mortality often lead individuals to seek comfort in structured, predictable and conservative ideologies. Previous research has yielded mixed results on how political decisions are influenced by such threats. Some studies suggest a shift towards the political right, while others propose increased polarization among both liberals and conservatives.\n\nIn California, voters recently debated revising Proposition 47, a law that had originally aimed to reduce prison populations by reclassifying minor thefts as misdemeanors. The law had faced criticism for not imposing harsher penalties on organized retail theft due to the low felony threshold. To test if fear-inducing media could sway voters in a highly liberal area, researchers from the University of San Francisco conducted two experiments. They recruited 206 adults from San Francisco and asked them about their preexisting political beliefs, including views on authority, immigration, and economics.\n\nThe participants were randomly assigned to watch either a video showcasing local tourist attractions to serve as a baseline or a compilation of news clips depicting organized looting and retail theft in the city. After watching the videos, the participants completed a mock exercise to revise Proposition 47, proposing the ideal dollar amount for felony charges as well as the minimum and maximum amounts they would accept on a ballot. They also rated their overall political orientation on a scale ranging from ultra-liberal to ultra-conservative.\n\nThe results showed that those who viewed the crime video proposed lower minimum and ideal dollar thresholds for felony charges compared to those who watched the tourist video. This demonstrated a shift towards a stricter, more punitive stance on retail theft, indicating a conservative policy position. However, this shift did not translate into a broader ideological change; participants' self-reported political orientation remained aligned with their initial beliefs and they did not move towards the political right overall.\n\nTo ensure the validity of their findings, the researchers conducted a second experiment with 98 college students in San Francisco, following a nearly identical procedure. The results of this experiment mirrored those of the first, showing that students exposed to the crime video also proposed lower felony thresholds for retail theft. Once again, these shifts towards stricter crime policies did not alter the students' broader political identities or cause them to become more polarized in their overall political views. The researchers concluded that while media exposure can alter specific policy preferences, the effects are limited and do not significantly impact the broader political identities of individuals.",
  "summary": "Watching footage of local retail crime prompted liberal voters to adopt stricter, more conservative criminal justice policies. However, a recent psychological experiment reveals that these fear-induced policy shifts did not alter the voters' broader political identities.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}