Direct and indirect punishment of norm violations in daily life

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; p. 3432
• Main Authors: Molho, Catherine, Tybur, Joshua M., Van Lange, Paul A. M., Balliet, Daniel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09-07-2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/181/2469; 706/689/2788; 706/689/477/2811; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Behavior; Context; Correlation analysis; Emotions; Female; Gossip; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Morals; Motivation; multidisciplinary; Psychology; Punishment; Punishment - psychology; Risk Factors; Risk taking; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Violations; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17286-2

Across societies, humans punish norm violations. To date, research on the antecedents and consequences of punishment has largely relied upon agent-based modeling and laboratory experiments. Here, we report a longitudinal study documenting punishment responses to norm violations in daily life (
k
 = 1507;
N
 = 257) and test pre-registered hypotheses about the antecedents of direct punishment (i.e., confrontation) and indirect punishment (i.e., gossip and social exclusion). We find that people use confrontation versus gossip in a context-sensitive manner. Confrontation is more likely when punishers have been personally victimized, have more power, and value offenders more. Gossip is more likely when norm violations are severe and when punishers have less power, value offenders less, and experience disgust. Findings reveal a complex punishment psychology that weighs the benefits of adjusting others’ behavior against the risks of retaliation.
People regularly punish norm violations using gossip and direct confrontation. Here, the authors show that the use of gossip versus direct confrontation is context sensitive, with confrontation used more when punishers have more to gain, and gossip used more when the costs of retaliation loom large.