When reputation is at stake, punishment becomes more responsible
Wednesday, June 20, 2012 - 05:00
in Psychology & Sociology
(Phys.org) -- The evolution of cooperative behaviour in people is often explained by the fact that it provides the opportunity to punish undesirable behaviour. However, such punishment is costly and the benefits for the person being punished therefore unclear. If the costs of the punishment exceed the benefits of the cooperation promoted by it, punishment would, from an evolutionary biological point of view, be pointless. Moreover, several behaviour experiments suggest that sanction opportunities are abused and that even cooperative behaviour is sometimes punished by fellow subjects.