Italian study reveals exposure to images of mafia violence increases trust in the state

JANUARY 24, 2024
by Bocconi University

The number of homicides in Italy today is one-third of those 20 years ago, yet Italians believe they have increased by 26.6%, with a 17.3% rise in mafia-related murders. Moreover, when exposed to images of mafia violence from newspapers, Italians do not tend to lose trust in the state, as studies in other countries would suggest. Instead, they tend to have more trust in institutions and offer a more positive judgment of their quality and performance.

Gianmarco Daniele and Paolo Pinotti from the CLEAN Unit for the Economic Analysis of Crime at Bocconi observe these behaviors through an experimental study of 5,374 individuals residing in Italy, conducted with Gian Maria Campedelli and Andrea Martinangeli. The study, "Organized Crime, Violence, and Support for the State," is published in the Journal of Public Economics.

Participants first answered questions about homicide trends and were then randomly divided into different groups. All were shown the same media images of criminal violence, sometimes attributed to mafia activities, other times to common crime. In some cases, before proceeding to the final phase of the experiment, the real trend of homicides in Italy was revealed.

Finally, all participants answered questions about trust in institutions, the perceived quality of their performance, and other topics such as trust in the judicial system, social trust, or preferences for public safety. To further verify trust in state institutions, participants were also asked to split a donation of one euro at will between two COVID funds, managed by a Ministry and an NGO, respectively.

More:
https://phys.org/news/2024-01-italian-reveals-exposure-images-mafia.html