Abstract
Summary Punishment and its avoidance are foundational to organisms’ behavior and evolutionary development. How do responses to unfavorable situations change across animal species? We address this question using a model of developmental and evolutionary complexity (Model of Hierarchical Complexity). Tasks are ordered in terms of an ordinal scale that measures difficulty (Order of Hierarchical Complexity). Successful completion of a task at a particular order is the behavioral stage of the organism on that task. This model applies to non-human and human-animals. Examples of organisms that perform tasks of punishment avoidance at each order are provided. The Model provides a useful way of explaining the differences between organisms that is consistent with evolutionary data. We argue that as animals become more complex, punishments become more harmful, but used at decreasing frequencies. However, punishment does not disappear at even the highest stages.
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