A Social Psychological Perspective on Punishment, Reward, and Reputation in Social Dilemmas
Final Report Abstract
Punishment, reward, and reputation represent means to address the conflict between individual and collective interests in social dilemma situations and foster prosocial behavior. The goal of the present project was to examine whether the execution of punishment, reward, and reputational concerns are deeply rooted in humans so that they are executed intuitively; or whether they are the result of a reflective thinking process. The conducted studies provide some evidence that, in line with the hypothesis, the rewarding of prosocial others is executed intuitively. Reward is an important means to foster cooperation in social dilemmas. Therefore, intuition might be beneficial to increase cooperation in social dilemmas. However, more evidence is needed to examine the robustness of this effect. In a similar vein, the evidence regarding whether punishment and reputational concerns are executed intuitively remains inconclusive. A second research question was whether the strategic shift in behavior towards cooperation when a punishment or reward system is present is favored by reflection rather than intuition. The conducted studies provide no evidence that the increase in cooperation when a reward or punishment system is present is favored by reflection rather than intuition. Instead, it seems that individuals differences (i.e., Honesty-Humility) determine behavior in a situation without regulation through reward or punishment when individuals decide intuitively. As such, the derived results highlight the importance of taking individual differences in interaction with structural factors (i.e., reward or punishment systems) and cognitive factors (i.e., decision-making style) into account.
Publications
- (2020). Intuitive decision-making promotes rewarding prosocial others independent of the personality trait Honesty- Humility. Scientific Reports, 10, 18579
Nockur, L., & Pfattheicher, S.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75255-7) - (2020). The Beautiful Complexity of Human Prosociality: On the Interplay of Honesty-Humility, Intuition, and a Reward System. Social Psychological and Personality Science
Nockur, L., & Pfattheicher, S.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550620961262) - Why do we punish? On retribution, deterrence, and the moderating role of punishment system. International Society for Justice Research Conference, July 2021
Nockur, L., Kesberg, R., Pfattheicher, S., & Keller, J.
- (2022). Why do we punish? On retribution, deterrence, and the moderating role of punishment system. Zeitschrift für Psychologie
Nockur, L., Kesberg, R., Pfattheicher, S., & Keller, J.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1027/2151-2604/a000457)
