Beyond Legal Deterrence: Individual Differences and Willingness to Offend

The study assessed demographic variables, antagonistic traits (psychopathy, narcissism, Machiavellianism, sadism), self-control, guilt, shame, moral disengagement, moral identity, and materialism, as well as participants’ willingness to commit a crime if all crimes were legal for a day.

The data collection aimed to replicate and extend the study by Meldrum et al. (2021), which examined individuals’ willingness to engage in criminal acts—including murder—in the absence of legal controls. In addition to this general question, we included a new questionnaire assessing participants’ likelihood of committing specific types of crimes (e.g., theft, murder, kidnapping, sexual offenses) under such conditions. Data collection was approved by the Ethics Review Board of the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences (TSB_RP807).