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Egalitarian motive and altruistic punishment (reply)

Author

Listed:
  • Ernst Fehr

    (University of Zürich, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics)

  • Simon Gächter

    (University of St Gallen, FEW–HSG)

Abstract

Fehr and Gächter reply - Fowler et al. raise an important question1. They correctly argue that the desire to reduce inequality may motivate cooperators who altruistically punish free riders in our experiments2. Also, the evolutionary history of humans suggests that egalitarianism shaped many human cultures3 and that egalitarian motives may, therefore, be a powerful force behind the punishment of free riders. In addition, recently developed proximate theories4, which formalize the notion of inequality aversion, also suggest that egalitarian desires may be important. Fowler et al. contrast their egalitarianism hypothesis with our view that negative emotions against free riders drive punishment.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernst Fehr & Simon Gächter, 2005. "Egalitarian motive and altruistic punishment (reply)," Nature, Nature, vol. 433(7021), pages 1-2, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:433:y:2005:i:7021:d:10.1038_nature03257
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03257
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    Cited by:

    1. Piras, Simone & Righi, Simone & Setti, Marco & Koseoglu, Nazli & Grainger, Matthew & stewart, Gavin & Vittuari, Matteo, 2021. "From social interactions to private environmental behaviours: The case of consumer food waste," SocArXiv 7k4vy, Center for Open Science.
    2. Wang, Xuwen & Zhang, Haifeng & Nie, Sen & Wang, Binghong, 2013. "Evolution of public cooperation with weighted and conditional strategies," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 392(19), pages 4668-4674.
    3. Aimone, Jason A. & Butera, Luigi & Stratmann, Thomas, 2018. "Altruistic punishment in elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-160.

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