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Egalitarian motive and altruistic punishment

Author

Listed:
  • James H. Fowler

    (University of California, Davis)

  • Tim Johnson

    (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Center for Adaptive Behaviour and Cognition)

  • Oleg Smirnov

    (University of Oregon, 1284 University of Oregon)

Abstract

Arising from: E. Fehr & S. Gächter Nature 415, 137–140 (2002); E. Fehr & S. Gächter reply Altruistic punishment is a behaviour in which individuals punish others at a cost to themselves in order to provide a public good. Fehr and Gächter1 present experimental evidence in humans indicating that negative emotions towards non-cooperators motivate punishment, which, in turn, provokes a high degree of cooperation. Using Fehr and Gächter's original data, we provide an alternative analysis of their experiment that suggests that egalitarian motives are more important than motives for punishing non-cooperative behaviour. This finding is consistent with evidence that humans may have an evolutionary incentive to punish the highest earners in order to promote equality, rather than cooperation2.

Suggested Citation

  • James H. Fowler & Tim Johnson & Oleg Smirnov, 2005. "Egalitarian motive and altruistic punishment," Nature, Nature, vol. 433(7021), pages 1-1, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:433:y:2005:i:7021:d:10.1038_nature03256
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03256
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Fazio, Andrea & Reggiani, Tommaso & Sabatini, Fabio, 2022. "The political cost of sanctions: Evidence from COVID-19," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(9), pages 872-878.
    2. Martijn Egas & Arno Riedl, 2005. "The Economics of Altruistic Punishment and the Demise of Cooperation," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 05-065/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Christian Thöni, 2014. "Inequality aversion and antisocial punishment," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 76(4), pages 529-545, April.
    4. Waring, Timothy M., 2010. "New evolutionary foundations: Theoretical requirements for a science of sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 718-730, February.
    5. Hiroki Ozono & Yoshio Kamijo & Kazumi Shimizu, 2016. "Institutionalize Reciprocity to Overcome the Public Goods Provision Problem," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(6), pages 1-11, June.
    6. Fazio, Andrea & Reggiani, Tommaso G. & Sabatini, Fabio, 2021. "The Political Cost of Lockdown's Enforcement," IZA Discussion Papers 14032, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Kazumi Shimizu & Daisuke Udagawa, 2018. "Is human life worth peanuts? Risk attitude changes in accordance with varying stakes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-12, August.
    8. Xu, Chenyang & Li, Tongzhe, 2024. "Are teams conditionally cooperative? Experimental evidence from a public goods game," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    9. John D. Marvel, 2020. "Evolution and egalitarianism: A behavioral account of managers' performance pay decisions," Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, Center for Experimental and Behavioral Public Administration, vol. 3(2).
    10. Chrysovalantis Gaganis & Panagiota Papadimitri & Fotios Pasiouras & Menelaos Tasiou, 2023. "Social traits and credit card default: a two-stage prediction framework," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 325(2), pages 1231-1253, June.
    11. Johnson, Tim & Dawes, Christopher T. & Fowler, James H. & McElreath, Richard & Smirnov, Oleg, 2009. "The role of egalitarian motives in altruistic punishment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 102(3), pages 192-194, March.
    12. Tim Johnson & Oleg Smirnov, 2012. "An alternative mechanism through which economic inequality facilitates collective action: Wealth disparities as a sign of cooperativeness," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 24(4), pages 461-484, October.
    13. Daniel A Braun & Pedro A Ortega & Daniel M Wolpert, 2009. "Nash Equilibria in Multi-Agent Motor Interactions," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(8), pages 1-8, August.
    14. Li, Yixiao & Jin, Xiaogang & Su, Xianchuang & Kong, Fansheng & Peng, Chengbin, 2010. "Cooperation and charity in spatial public goods game under different strategy update rules," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(5), pages 1090-1098.
    15. Kordonis, Ioannis & Lagos, Athanasios-Rafail & Papavassilopoulos, George P., 2022. "Nash social distancing games with equity constraints: How inequality aversion affects the spread of epidemics," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 434(C).
    16. Paolo Crosetto & Werner Güth & Luigi Mittone & Matteo Ploner, 2012. "Motives of Sanctioning: Equity and Emotions in a Public Good Experiment with Punishment," Jena Economics Research Papers 2012-046, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    17. Ulrich Schmidt & Philipp C. Wichardt, 2019. "Inequity aversion, welfare measurement and the Gini index," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 52(3), pages 585-588, March.
    18. Dmytro Osiichuk, 2022. "The Driver of Workplace Alienation or the Cost of Effective Stewardship? The Consequences of Wage Gap for Corporate Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-26, June.
    19. Farrar, Jonathan & Hausserman, Cass & Rennie, Morina, 2019. "The influence of revenge and financial rewards on tax fraud reporting intentions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 102-116.
    20. 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.
    21. Riccardo Pansini & Marco Campennì & Lei Shi, 2020. "Segregating socioeconomic classes leads to an unequal redistribution of wealth," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-10, December.
    22. Aimone, Jason A. & Butera, Luigi & Stratmann, Thomas, 2018. "Altruistic punishment in elections," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 149-160.
    23. Xiaomin Liu & Yuqing Zhang & Zihao Chen & Guangcan Xiang & Hualing Miao & Cheng Guo, 2023. "Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Altruistic Behavior in Chinese Middle School Students: Mediating Role of Empathy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-12, February.

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