Judges in the United States tend to give defendants longer
sentences the day after switching to daylight saving time compared with other
days of the year, according to research published in Psychological Science, a
journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Previous research has shown that people tend to sacrifice,
on average, about 40 minutes of sleep when they "spring forward" to
daylight saving time, and even this small amount of lost sleep can have
negative consequences, including an increase in workplace injuries, slacking
off at work, and auto accidents. The results of this new research suggest that
shortened sleep associated with the change to daylight saving time might also
affect the severity of sentences doled out by judges.
"We find that the sentences given to those convicted of
crimes may be partially polluted by the sleep of those giving the
punishments," says researcher Kyoungmin Cho of the University of
Washington, first author on the study. "Sleep is a factor that should not
play a role in their sentences, but does."
Cho conducted the research with co-authors Christopher M.
Barnes (University of Washington) and Cristiano L. Guanara (University of
Virginia).
Evidence for the detrimental effects of sleep is abundant:
Studies have shown that sleep-deprived people have more difficulty weighing
risks, they are more sensitive to potentially negative or threatening stimuli,
they have more difficulty regulating emotions, and they are more impulsive.
The annual shift in sleeping patterns due to daylight saving
time led Cho, Barnes, and Guanara to wonder: Could losing an hour affect
consequential legal decisions the next day?
To answer this question, the researchers tapped into data on
legal sentences handed down between 1992 and 2003, collected by the US
Sentencing Commission. The researchers examined data within each judicial
district to account for variation across districts and they looked at the
length of the sentence given, not including any other types of sentences
including community confinement or probation.
To isolate the unique impact of daylight saving time, Cho
and colleagues took other potential influences into account, including the
yearly trend in sentencing decisions and various characteristics related to
both the trial and the offender.
Across multiple analyses, the researchers found a consistent
trend: Sentences given on the Monday after the switch to daylight saving time
were longer than those given on other days.
Specifically, Cho and colleagues found that sentences on the
so-called "Sleepy Monday" were about 5% longer than those given on
the previous Monday and the following Monday.
Additional analyses showed that legal sentences handed out
on Sleepy Monday were longer than those given on all other Mondays combined,
and they were also longer than those doled out on all other days of the year
combined.
Importantly, the effect was specific to Sleepy Monday:
Sentences given on the other weekdays following the transition to daylight
saving time did not differ from sentences given one week before or one week
after. Cho and colleagues found that the return to standard time in the fall,
when people gain an hour, had no effect on legal sentencing.
To be sure, there are many variables that influence a
judge's sentencing decisions and the average amount of sleep lost due to
daylight saving time is less than an hour. And yet, the data still showed a
clear relationship between the time change and sentencing:
"We were surprised at how clearly we were able to
detect the hypothesized effect," says Cho. "Across many alternative
analyses and robustness checks, the effect was still quite clear and
meaningful."
The findings have clear implications for those involved in
the legal system, but may also extend to the many other contexts in which
people give or receive punishment.
"Bosses punish employees who break work rules, parents
punish children who engage in bad behavior, teachers punish students who
disrupt the classroom environment, and sports referees punish players and
athletes who violate the rules of the game," Cho notes. "Many of the
people making these punishment decisions will do so while short on sleep, and
the same logic explored in our research will likely apply in those contexts, as
well."
In future research, Cho hopes to investigate the causal
mechanisms that link sleep and punishment decisions, as well as potential
strategies for mitigating these effects.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161214115054.htm
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Kyoungmin Cho, Christopher M. Barnes, Cristiano L. Guanara. Sleepy Punishers Are Harsh Punishers. Daylight Saving Time and Legal Sentences. Psychological Science. Online.
Abstract
The degree of punishment assigned to criminals is of pivotal
importance for the maintenance of social order and cooperation. Nonetheless,
the amount of punishment assigned to transgressors can be affected by factors
other than the content of the transgressions. We propose that sleep deprivation
in judges increases the severity of their sentences. We took advantage of the
natural quasi-manipulation of sleep deprivation during the shift to daylight
saving time in the spring and analyzed archival data from judicial punishment
handed out in the U.S. federal courts. The results supported our hypothesis:
Judges doled out longer sentences when they were sleep deprived.
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