In Prisoners’ Shoes: How incarceration shapes policy preferences
A recent study provides new evidence that real-life experiences can have a direct influence on public opinion.
Imagine being jailed for 48 hours. What would that feel like? Would the experience give you a new perspective on life in prison and perhaps even change your opinions about criminal justice? To explore these questions, a group of researchers from UZH and KOF Institute at ETH Zürich, conducted a unique randomized experiment in which volunteer citizens were invited to spend up to two days in incarceration, living under the same conditions as actual prisoners. This new study provides novel evidence of how real-world experiences have a direct impact on public opinion.
A unique field experiment
Before the official opening of a new Zurich prison (Switzerland) in 2022, the Department of Justice and Home Affairs of the Canton of Zurich organized a test run to evaluate its operational and security procedures under simulated real-life conditions. A group of researchers, composed by Michel Maréchal from UZH and Arto Arman, Andreas Beerli and Aljosha Henkel, from KOF Institute at ETH Zürich, took advantage of a unique setting offering real-life prison conditions to conduct a randomized controlled trial, examining how the experience of incarceration shapes preferences for criminal justice policies.
Following a call for participants, volunteers were recruited and randomly assigned either to the treatment group (126 participants), who received the chance to participate in the prison test run, or to the control group (309 participants), who were not invited to take part in the test run. The volunteer-inmates spent up to 48 hours inside the facility, closely mirroring a real prisoner’s journey from intake to release, which included strip searches, confiscation of personal belongings, and adherence to a strictly regulated daily routine.
The evaluation of the study consisted of surveys conducted with applicants before and after the prison test run. These surveys aimed to measure the punitive attitudes and beliefs of the participants about prison wellbeing, using both questionnaire items and behavioral measures with real financial consequences.
Experiencing life in prison fosters support for lighter criminal justice policies
The study’s results reveal new insights into how public opinion is formed. In fact, participants in the prison test run grew markedly less supportive of punitive measures, and this shift was also reflected in their increased donations to organizations advocating more moderate, rather than harsh, criminal justice policies.
The study further shows that the public significantly overestimates the wellbeing of actual prisoners. Importantly, the prison test run did not alter beliefs about prisoner’s wellbeing, perceptions of procedural fairness, or trust in the justice system. Yet it did reduce punitive attitudes. All this indicates that the shift toward less harsh punishment was rather driven by personal experience, rather than by revised beliefs.
The impact of personal experiences on beliefs, preferences, and public policies
The field experiment was conducted in a unique setting, enabling the researchers to carry out a field experiment examining the impact of personal experience on beliefs and preferences. While much of the existing literature relies on observational data or laboratory settings, the present study contributes to a growing literature in economics an psychology highlighting the importance of lived experience. The findings provide causal evidence that real-world experiences can shape public opinion.
Although large-scale incarceration simulations are unlikely to be practical policy interventions, the results suggest that experience-based educational tools, such as guided prison visits or virtual simulations, may help broaden the perspectives of key stakeholders within the justice system, such as judges, lawyers, and policymakers.