Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of socioeconomic status (SES) on perception and punishment for targets’ violation of traffic laws, and to examine the mediation effects of expectancy disconfirmation. For this purpose, a 2 ✕ 2 between subject experiment was conducted for 280 participants by manipulating SES (high vs. low) and gender (male vs. female) in the traffic scene. Participants were randomly assigned one of four conditions, and presented with stimulus pictures and explanation corresponding each condition, and then answered a survey including manipulation check, impression evaluation, expectancy disconfirmation, wrongness perception and punishment for violation of traffic laws. In this study, offenses were divided into fine type (parking violation, signal violation, and speed violation) and penalty type (drunken driving, driving without a license, hit-and-run). We found that there was a significant difference in the wrongness perception of the violation of the fine and the judgment of punishment according to target’s SES. In the violations of fine type, people with higher socioeconomic status were perceived as more wrong and punished more severely for the same violation. For the case of penalty type, there was no difference depending on target’s SES. The relationships between SES and perception/punishment were mediated by the expectations-disconfirmation. Specifically, it was found that the degree of expectation-disconfirmation was greater (vs. small) for drivers with higher (vs. lower) SES, and ultimately, these inconsistencies made perception/ judgments for violations more wrong/harsh. The results of this study are meaningful in that socioeconomic status in the traffic scene can bias social judgment and punishment for traffic violation behavior.