Expectations do not affect punishment

Lucas Coffman

Journal of the Economic Science Association, 2019, vol. 5, issue 2, No 4, 182-196

Abstract: Abstract Expectations-based reference dependence has been shown to be important across a variety of contexts in Psychology and Economics. Do expectations play a role in moral judgment? The higher our beliefs are relative to an outcome, do we punish more harshly? This paper reports a series of experiments investigating the hypothesis that expectations as reference points per se affect punishment. The experimental design varies the expectation the Punisher holds just before she learns what actually occurred. In tandem with the manipulation, expectations are shown to vary significantly and substantially. However, punishment does not respond to these exogenous changes in expectations. After 17 sessions, 295 Punishers, and six experimental setups, expectations are shown not to affect punishment in any systematic way.

Keywords: Experiments; Reference dependence; Expectations; Punishment; Morality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 C92 D63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/s40881-019-00079-9

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