PUBLIC ATTITUTEDS TOWARDS OFFENDERS IN SINGAPORE: EFFECTS OF IMPLICIT THEORY AND TWO ANTI-STIGMA INTERVENTIONS

Abstract

Research suggests that implicit theories, which are individual beliefs about the malleability of personal traits, play a role in the public stigmatisation of offenders. The present study employed a 2 x 4 between-subjects design to test the effects of implicit theory and offence type on participants’ cognitive, affective, and behavioural attitudes towards offenders. Subsequently, the effectiveness of educational and imagined contact interventions were also tested in a pretest-posttest design. Results from a sample of 313 Singaporeans and Permanent Residents showed that participants who held an experimentally induced incremental theory reported less negative cognitive and behavioural attitudes towards offenders. Attitudes towards violent and sex offenders were generally the most negative, while attitudes towards drug use offenders were the most positive. Lastly, both anti-stigma interventions successfully improved participants’ attitudes towards offenders from pre- to post-intervention, and neither intervention was affected by implicit theory. These findings established the directionality of the relationship between implicit theories and offender-related attitudes and provided a better understanding of public attitudes towards violent, sex, drug, and white-collar offenders in Singapore. These results also highlight the feasibility of educational and imagined contact interventions for reducing public stigma towards offenders.