Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Psychology of Altruistic Punishment

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

Individual human beings and collectives alike face cooperation problems ranging from the relation between the taxi driver and customer to fragile alliances between nations. Relative success in solving these problems on a regular basis has made modern society possible. Thus, how people solve cooperation problems and survive situations where their personal interests conflict with the interests of the groups to which they belong is a central question within the social sciences. This research project engages the most recent theories of cooperation. Among the most promising approaches to the cooperation problem is Altruistic Punishment theory. In a nutshell, altruistic punishment refers to the willingness to punish defectors (free riders, who refuse to contribute to a collective good) even when doing so is materially costly and provides no direct benefits. This dissertation will attempt to answer three interlinked questions: (1) Is there evidence for a framework of adaptation for social exchange that involves altruistic punishment? (2) What are the psychological determinants of cooperation and altruistic punishment? (3) To what extent do these psychological factors explain individual differences observed in the laboratory experiments? Answers to these three questions would shed light not only on the specific research question of the psychology of altruistic punishment but also on how cooperation problems are solved. In order to answer these three research questions a series of experiments have been designed that involve economic decision making tasks - specifically, providing collective goods in small groups and punishing, as the participants please, those who do not contribute. Participants are tested on two key psychological scales, Machiavellianism, which measures a person's tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain, and social conformism. In a second series of experiments, the affective components of altruistic punishment will be investigated. The project expects that altruistic punishment is basically an emotional response to a norm violation. In order to test this theory, the participants' mood is manipulated in experiments. This study will have broader impacts as the psychological insight resulting from this research could aid field researchers who investigate real life cooperation problems, such as those involving fisheries and management of other common pool resources. A better understanding of the mechanisms responsible for inducing cooperation can ultimately influence how policymakers design institutions. Societies rely heavily upon formalized institutions to remain intact, and a psychologically realistic model of cooperative behavior would undoubtedly help calibrate the institutional framework for addressing cooperation problems.