News that a countryman will be held in a foreign jail is often jarring - either the listener will somehow minimize the crime or feel the punishment seems too severe.
Most Americans would likely feel less conflicted about hearing of an American being held in an English prison than Mexican. I would guess that a chart showing reactions would be a good predictor of feelings regarding other places. Assuming the validity of this "kinship" test is proven, I think it could be useful in another context: Nationbuilding.
I think most Americans feel relatively (aside from the burdens of travel) indifferent between incarceration in NY or California. But this is unlikely between Basra and Tikrit for most Iraqis. A survey indicating this would be a nice, more concrete, way to show that efforts to build a single Iraq are misguided and that success is somewhere between far-away and never.
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