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Sending a message or seeking retributive justice? An experimental investigation of why people punish

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  • Shichman, Ruslan
  • Weiss, Avi

Abstract

Two prevailing theories exist to explain why people engage in costly punishment in one-shot interactions when they cannot expect to gain from the punishment or to affect future behavior: to achieve balance or to send a message. In this paper we constructed new versions of the Dictator, Public Good, and Power-to-Take games, designed specifically to allow us to differentiate between these explanations. The results lend some support to each of the hypotheses; on the one hand, subjects punish even when the punisher knows that the offender will never learn that he was punished, and, on the other hand, there is more punishment when the punisher knows that the offender will be informed that he is being punished than when the punisher knows that the offender will remain oblivious to the punishment. Thus, punishers seek both "retributive justice" and to "send a message" to the offending party.

Suggested Citation

  • Shichman, Ruslan & Weiss, Avi, 2022. "Sending a message or seeking retributive justice? An experimental investigation of why people punish," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:soceco:v:100:y:2022:i:c:s221480432200091x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2022.101918
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Punishment; Dictator game; Public Good game; Power-to-take game;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior

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