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Western jurisprudence and criminal justice systems as superstitious belief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2026

Raihan Alam Open the ORCID record for Raihan Alam [Opens in a new window]  and
Tage Rai Open the ORCID record for Tage Rai [Opens in a new window]
Raihan Alam
Affiliation:
University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA trai@ucsd.edu raihan.alam@rady.ucsd.edu
Tage Rai*
Affiliation:
University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA trai@ucsd.edu raihan.alam@rady.ucsd.edu
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

Western punitive justice systems persist despite weak evidence that they reduce crime. We argue that they function as WEIRD cultural superstitions: punishment intuitively feels effective even when it fails. Drawing on Singh’s framework, historical evidence of punishment’s dominance origins, and our own experiments, we show how subjective selection sustains maladaptive punitive institutions – ultimately raising the question, intuitively effective to whom?

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Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 49 , 2026 , e286
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press

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