The Importance of Emotions for the Effectiveness of Social Punishment

Astrid Hopfensitz and Ernesto Reuben

No 06-09, Discussion Papers from University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper experimentally explores how the enforcement of cooperative behavior in a social dilemma is facilitated through institutional as well as emotional mechanisms. Recent studies emphasize the importance of anger and its role in motivating individuals to punish free riders. However, we find that anger also triggers retaliatory behavior by the punished individuals. This makes the enforcement of a cooperative norm more costly. We show that in addition to anger, ‘social’ emotions like guilt need to be present for punishment to be an effective deterrent of uncooperative actions. They play a key role by subduing the desire of punished individuals to retaliate and by motivating them to behave more cooperatively in the future.

JEL-codes: C92 D74 H41 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2005-07, Revised 2006-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-exp, nep-pbe and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Importance of Emotions for the Effectiveness of Social Punishment (2009)
Journal Article: The Importance of Emotions for the Effectiveness of Social Punishment (2009)
Working Paper: The Importance of Emotions for the Effectiveness of Social Punishment (2006)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kud:kuiedp:0609

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