Do forgiving God primes strengthen support for state-sanctioned punishment? Laurin et al (2012) found that beliefs in powerful, intervening Gods (both in general and when made salient) reduce people’s endorsement of state-sanctioned punishment. In light of this, we investigated whether the manner in which God intervenes (via forgiveness or punishment) influences people’s endorsement of state-sa...

In the Ultimatum Game (UG), incurring a cost to punish inequity is commonly termed altruistic punishment. This behaviour is thought to benefit others if the defector becomes more equitable in future interactions. However, clear connections between punishment in the UG and altruistic behaviours outside the laboratory are lacking. We tested the altruistic punishment hypothesis in a sample of extr...

Reward and punishment motivate behavior, but it is unclear exactly how they impact skill performance and whether the effect varies across skills. The present study investigated the effect of reward and punishment in both a sequencing skill and a motor skill context. Participants trained on either a sequencing skill (serial reaction time task) or a motor skill (force-tracking task). Skill knowle...

Until recently, theorists considering the evolution of human cooperation have paid little attention to institutional punishment, a defining feature of large-scale human societies. Compared to individually-administered punishment, institutional punishment offers a unique potential advantage: the ability to control how quickly legal rules of punishment evolve relative to social behavior that lega...

William Neal Moore was indicted by a grand jury in Jefferson County, Georgia, for the April 2, 1974 malice murder and armed robbery of Fredger Stapleton, an elderly black man and the uncle of an acquaintance of Mr. Moore. At a hearing conducted before Judge Walter C. McMillan, Jr. in the Superior Court of Jefferson County on June 4, 1974, Mr. Moore waived trial by jury with respect to both guil...

The relationship between race and jury decision making is a controversial topic that has received increased attention in recent years. While public and media discourse has focused on anecdotal evidence in the form of high-profile cases, legal researchers have considered a wide range of empirical questions including: To what extent does the race of a defendant affect the verdict tendencies of ju...

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether Navy personnel are disciplined without regard to racial-ethnic membership. Two samples were used. The first consisted of personnel receiving nonjudicial punishment (N3P) or courts-martial between 1 May 1982 and 30 April 1983. The second sample was derived from documents reporting infractions, which contain the nature of the violation an...

s We examine the relation between founding family and corporate investment policy through the incentives of CEO compensation in a structural framework. We focus on two pay sensitivities, delta and vega, which motivate managerial efforts and risk-taking behavior, respectively. We find that vega is lowest and delta is highest in active family firms despite no significant differences in both measu...