Punishment for intentions or outcomes: the role of gender and social norms

Simon Dato () and Tim Friehe ()
Additional contact information
Simon Dato: EBS University for Business and Law
Tim Friehe: University of Marburg

Social Choice and Welfare, 2025, vol. 65, issue 4, No 4, 853-882

Abstract: Abstract Individuals often evaluate others’ actions based on both their perceived intentions and their resulting outcomes, rewarding favorable actions and punishing unfavorable ones. This study aims to isolate the influence of these factors on punishment. We experimentally demonstrate that, when outcomes are held constant, second movers punish first movers who choose selfish actions more severely than those who select considerate ones. Conversely, when intentions are fixed, the severity of punishment does not significantly differ between fair and unfair outcomes on average. However, this average masks gender-specific variations. Men tend to prioritize punishing unkind intentions, while women are more sensitive to the perceived fairness of outcomes. Social norms help explain punishment choices and gender differences.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00355-025-01596-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sochwe:v:65:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s00355-025-01596-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... c+theory/journal/355

DOI: 10.1007/s00355-025-01596-9

Access Statistics for this article

Social Choice and Welfare is currently edited by Bhaskar Dutta, Marc Fleurbaey, Elizabeth Maggie Penn and Clemens Puppe

More articles in Social Choice and Welfare from Springer, The Society for Social Choice and Welfare Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().