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Who punishes? A note on responses to cooperation and defection across cultures

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  • Talbot M. Andrews

    (University of Connecticut)

Abstract

While people are surprisingly cooperative in social dilemmas, cooperation is fragile to the emergence of defection. Punishment is a key mechanism through which people sustain cooperation, but when are people willing to pay the costs to punish? Using data from existing work on punishment in public goods games conducted in industrialized countries throughout the world (Herrmann et al. in Science, 319(5868):1362–1367, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1144237 ), I find first that those who contribute more are consistently punished less. Second, in many study locations, there are insignificant differences in the propensity of those who contribute and defect to punish. Finally, those who contribute and defect both carry out punishment against defectors. Some defectors do punish cooperators, but less often than they punish other defectors. The determinants of punishment are largely consistent across cities.

Suggested Citation

  • Talbot M. Andrews, 2024. "Who punishes? A note on responses to cooperation and defection across cultures," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 10(2), pages 603-608, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jesaex:v:10:y:2024:i:2:d:10.1007_s40881-023-00157-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s40881-023-00157-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public goods; Cooperation; Punishment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
    • C92 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Group Behavior
    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • H41 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Public Goods

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