International Business School, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Beijing, 100089, China.
Center for Economic Research, Shandong University, Jinan, 250100, China.
Sci Rep. 2023 Aug 26;13(1):13997. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-41256-5.
Reward for altruism and punishment for selfishness are crucial components for the maintenance of society. Past studies have provided strong evidence that people are willing to incur costs to punish selfish behaviors and to reward altruistic behaviors, but how their willingness to do so depends on their relationship with the individuals conducting the anti-social or pro-social behaviors is much less explored. To probe into this question, we devised a three-stage experiment that combined a revised dictator game and third-party reward or punishment. We employed two payoff frameworks, alignment and conflict, and analyzed how third-party's willingness to reward and punish differed when their interests were either aligned or in conflict with the first-party under observation. We found that due to considerations for personal interests, third-party's reward and punishment levels deviated from what was deemed "legitimate" by society, that is, the level of reward and punishment that enhances society's intrinsic motivations to comply with social norms and act pro-socially. When an anti-social behavior was observed, third-party punished less severely under the alignment framework than under the conflict framework; when a pro-social behavior was observed, third-party demonstrated self-serving reward under the alignment framework, but they rewarded altruistically under the conflict framework. These findings provided evidence for third-party's self-serving reward and punishment.
利他主义的回报和自私自利的惩罚是维护社会的关键因素。过去的研究提供了强有力的证据，表明人们愿意付出代价来惩罚自私行为，奖励利他行为，但他们这样做的意愿取决于他们与实施反社会或亲社会行为的个人的关系，这方面的研究要少得多。为了探究这个问题，我们设计了一个三阶段的实验，结合了修正后的独裁者博弈和第三方奖励或惩罚。我们采用了两种收益框架，一致和冲突，并分析了当第三方的利益与被观察的第一方一致或冲突时，他们奖励和惩罚的意愿有何不同。我们发现，由于考虑到个人利益，第三方的奖励和惩罚水平偏离了社会认为“合法”的水平，也就是说，奖励和惩罚的水平增强了社会内在动机，使其遵守社会规范并采取亲社会行为。当观察到反社会行为时，第三方在一致框架下的惩罚比在冲突框架下要轻；当观察到亲社会行为时，第三方在一致框架下表现出自利的奖励，但在冲突框架下他们则表现出利他的奖励。这些发现为第三方的自利奖励和惩罚提供了证据。
