Observed Punishment Spillover Effects: A Laboratory Investigation of Behavior in a Social Dilemma

David Dickinson, E. Dutcher and Cortney Rodet ()

No 13-20, Working Papers from Department of Economics, Appalachian State University

Abstract: Punishment has been shown to be an effective reinforcement mechanism. Intentional or not, punishment will likely generate spillover effects that extend beyond one’s immediate decision environment, and these spillovers are not as well understood. We seek to understand these secondary spillover effects in a controlled lab setting using a standard social dilemma: the voluntary contributions mechanism. We find that spillovers occur when others observe punishment outside their own social dilemma. However, the direction of the spillover effect depends crucially on personal punishment history and whether one is personally exempt from punishment or not. Key Words: Punishment, Punishment Spillovers, Vicarious Punishment, VCM, Social Dilemma, Experiment

JEL-codes: C91 C92 D03 H40 J24 K42 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://econ.appstate.edu/RePEc/pdf/wp1320.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Observed punishment spillover effects: a laboratory investigation of behavior in a social dilemma (2015)
Working Paper: Observed Punishment Spillover Effects: A Laboratory Investigation of Behavior in a Social Dilemma (2013)
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:apl:wpaper:13-20

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Department of Economics, Appalachian State University Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by O. Ashton Morgan ().