From variability to vulnerability: People exposed to greater variability judge wrongdoers more harshly.

Recent decades have seen increased variability in diverse domains, such as the climate and asset prices. As more resources are required to cope with greater variability in the outside world, exposure to greater variability can make people feel that society is more vulnerable. This sense of vulnerability, in turn, can lead people to judge and punish wrongdoers more harshly. Studies 1a–2c found that people who were exposed to graphs representing...