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Altruistic Punishment in Humans

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Author Info
Ernst Fehr (University of Zuerich)
Simon Gaechter (University of St. Gallen)

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Abstract

Human cooperation is an evolutionary puzzle. Unlike other creatures, people frequently cooperate with genetically unrelated strangers, often in large groups, with people they will never meet again, and when reputation gains are small or absent. These patterns of cooperation cannot be explained by the nepotistic motives associated with the evolutionary theory of kin selection and the sel®sh motives associated with signalling theory or the theory of reciprocal altruism. Here we show experimentally that the altruistic punishment of defectors is a key motive for the explanation of cooperation. Altruistic punishment means that individuals punish, although the punishment is costly for them and yields no material gain. We show that cooperation ¯ourishes if altruistic punishment is possible, and breaks down if it is ruled out. The evidence indicates that negative emotions towards defectors are the proximate mechanism behind altruistic punishment. These results suggest that future study of the evolution of human cooperation should include a strong focus on explaining altruistic punishment.

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Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Microeconomics with number 0305006.

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Length: 4 pages
Date of creation: 07 May 2003
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Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpmi:0305006

Note: Type of Document - Acrobat PDF; pages: 4
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Web page: http://129.3.20.41

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Related research
Keywords: Human cooperation; Altruistic; punishment;

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
D00 - Microeconomics - - General - - - General
J00 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - General

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