open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/33772

Punishing free riders : direct and indirect promotion of cooperation

Direct and indirect effect of punishment

英語

Prisoner's dilemma

2007-09

Elsevier

Evolution and Human Behavior

28(5)

330-339

Human cooperation in a large group of genetically unrelated people is an evolutionary puzzle. Despite its costly nature, cooperative behaviour is commonly found in all human societies, a fact that has interested researchers from a wide range of disciplines including biology, economics, and psychology to name a few. Many behavioural experiments have demonstrated that cooperation within a group can be sustained when free riders are punished. We argue that punishment has both a direct and an indirect effect in promoting cooperation. The direct effect of punishment alters the consequences of cooperation and defection in such a way as to make a rational person prefer cooperation. The indirect effect of punishment promotes cooperation among conditional cooperators by providing the condition necessary for their cooperation -- i.e., the expectation that other members will also cooperate. Here we present data from two one-shot, n-person Prisoner's Dilemma games, demonstrating that the indirect effect of punishment complements the direct effect to increase cooperation in the game. Further, we show that the direct and indirect effects are robust across two forms of punishment technology; either when the punishment is voluntarily provided by game players themselves or when it is exogenously provided by the experimenter.

学術雑誌論文

Accepted Manuscript

1090-5138

AA11121760