Department of Sociology, Baylor University, Waco, TX 76798, United States.
Soc Sci Res. 2013 Mar;42(2):562-70. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2012.10.004. Epub 2012 Oct 29.
While much research shows that people punish free-riders, recent studies find evidence that people also engage in antisocial punishment. That is, they sometimes punish those who contribute generously to collective actions. Such sanctioning is puzzling because generous individuals increase the welfare of all group members. When and why are such individuals punished? In this paper, we propose that descriptive norms are part of the explanation. People may sanction those whose behavior is atypical - even when that behavior benefits the group. We test our theory with a laboratory experiment. We examine the effect of descriptive norms on sanctioning of generous and stingy deviants and find that descriptive norms encourage antisocial punishment, but not punishment of free-riders.
虽然大量研究表明人们会惩罚搭便车者,但最近的研究发现了人们也会进行反社会惩罚的证据。也就是说,他们有时会惩罚那些对集体行动做出慷慨贡献的人。这种制裁令人费解,因为慷慨的人会增加所有群体成员的福利。那么,为什么会这样呢?在本文中,我们提出描述性规范是解释的一部分。人们可能会制裁那些行为不合常规的人——即使这种行为对群体有益。我们通过实验室实验来检验我们的理论。我们考察了描述性规范对慷慨和吝啬的离群者的制裁的影响,发现描述性规范鼓励反社会的惩罚,但不鼓励对搭便车者的惩罚。