Some courts impose sentences far longer than a human lifetime, such as 30,000 years, and a psychologist, a philosopher, and a judge tested why people support them. In their experiment, participants who recommended a sentence that couldn't be served (ending around age 133) trimmed it by the same six years, after hearing mitigating evidence, as participants whose sentences could really be served. This suggests the imaginary years carry meaning for people, possibly through evolved, intuitive instincts to track social debts through punishment, and understanding those instincts can help us judge when they serve societal goals and when they work against them.

​

FULL STORY