Prior research suggests that negligent harms are punished because of the resulting negative outcomes. Under this account, negligent but completely harmless acts should not be punished. An alternative possibility is that negligence is punished as a way of modifying future thought and behavior. Across three studies we find support for this second proposal. Study 1 demonstrates that punishment is ...

Punishment of non-cooperators-free riders-can lead to high cooperation in public goods games (PGG). However, second-order free riders, who do not pay punishment costs, reduce the effectiveness of punishment. Here we introduce a "leader support system," in which one group leader can freely punish group followers using capital pooled through the support of group followers. In our experiment, part...

Cross-culturally, participants in public goods games reward participants and punish defectors to a degree beyond that warranted by rational, profit-maximizing considerations. Costly punishment, where individuals impose costs on defectors at a cost to themselves, is thought to promote the maintenance of cooperation. However, despite substantial variation in the extent to which people punish, lit...

Punishment can help maintain cooperation by deterring free-riding and cheating. Of particular importance in large-scale human societies is third-party punishment in which individuals punish a transgressor or norm violator even when they themselves are not affected. Nonhuman primates and other animals aggress against conspecifics with some regularity, but it is unclear whether this is ever aimed...

⁎ Corresponding author. Harvard University, Departmen Cambridge, MA 02138. Tel.: +1 203 558 0974. E-mail address: [email protected] (K.L. Leimgru http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.12.002 1090-5138/© 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Leimgruber, K.L., et dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2015.12 Article history: Initial receipt 1 September 2015 ...

Social norms are a cornerstone of human society. When social norms are violated (e.g., fairness) people can either help the victim or punish the violator in order to restore justice. Recent research has shown that empathic concern influences this decision to help or punish. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we investigated the neural underpinnings of third-party help and punish...