Abstract
Punishment aims to deter individuals’ selfish behaviors, but it can occasionally backfire. Some scholars have proposed promoting prosocial behaviors using punishment that communicates positive social norms because it provides additional motivation. However, it is unclear which factors affect the norm expressive function of punishment. This study proposes that third-party punishment communicates more positive normative information, and thus, promotes more prosocial behavior in observers than does second-party punishment. Using dictator games, we investigated the effects of second-party punishment compared to third-party punishment of another’s unfair sharing on observers’ norm perceptions and subsequent sharing decision-making. Two experiments consistently found that third-party punishment was more effective than second-party punishment at inducing observers’ beliefs that unfair distribution was unusual (descriptive norm) and unacceptable (injunctive norm). The altered descriptive but not injunctive norm perception further guided individuals’ own sharing behaviors. Taken together, these results suggest that third-party punishment might be better than second-party punishment at decreasing selfish behaviors by shaping individuals’ norm perceptions, especially descriptive norm perception, regarding the relevant behaviors.
Highlights
Punishment is a crucial deterrence strategy against selfish behaviors [1]
The results consistently showed that compared with Secondparty punishment (SPP), Third-party punishment (TPP) induced a belief in observers that the selfish behavior was less common and acceptable
Independent group t-tests revealed significant differences between the SPP and TPP groups in descriptive norm perception, namely beliefs about the transfer amount of other students, (t(120) = 2.78, p = 0.006, Cohen’s d = 0.50, 95%CI = [0.14, 0.86]) and injunctive norm perception, namely beliefs about the transfer amount that other students would approve of (t(120) = 2.59, p = 0.011, Cohen’s d = 0.47, 95%CI = [0.11, 0.83]); see Fig 1
Summary
Punishment is a crucial deterrence strategy against selfish behaviors [1]. Many behavioral experiments have demonstrated that there are fewer selfish behaviors in the presence of punishment opportunities [2,3,4,5]. The presence of punishment might crowd out an individual’s intrinsic concern for justice [6]. If the costs of punishment are low and/or the likelihood of punishment is low or nonexistent, individuals’ selfish behaviors might increase [7]. The detrimental effects of punishment might be avoided when the punishment signals positive social norms [8]
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