The Advantage of Democratic Peer Punishment in Sustaining Cooperation within Groups

In social dilemma situations, individuals benefit from uncooperative behavior while exploiting resources of the collective. One prominent solution to prevent uncooperative behavior and to increase cooperation is to establish a system of costly peer punishment, that is, the possibility for every individual involved in the dilemma to impose costly punishment on interaction partners. However, recent research revealed that, in contrast to a situation without punishment, peer punishment is inefficient and maladaptive in the sense that the total payoff is reduced and punishment of cooperative individuals (i.e., antisocial punishment) is possible. In the present work, we propose that a system of democratic peer punishment, that is, direct and equal participation of each individual in the punishment decision‐making process with punishment only executed when a majority has voted for its execution, can address the shortcomings of a peer punishment system. Using iterated public goods games, we show higher cooperation levels, higher total payoffs, and reduced executed punishment in the democratic compared with a peer punishment system. Moreover, we document that fairness perceptions, satisfaction, and interpersonal trust are increased in the democratic punishment system. Implications for how cooperation and democratic punishment systems may evolve are discussed. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Bidirectional Associations between Parenting Practices and Conduct Problems in Boys from Childhood to Adolescence: The Moderating Effect of Age and African-American Ethnicity

This study examined the bidirectional relationship between parent and teacher reported conduct problems in youth and parenting practices using a longitudinal sample of boys assessed from 6 to 16 years of age. Analyses tested whether these bidirectional associations changed across development and whether the nature of these associations varied across African-American and Caucasian families. Overall, the results supported a bidirectional relationship between conduct problems and all parenting practices examined from childhood to adolescence. The influence of conduct problems on changes in parenting behaviors was as strong as the influence of parenting behaviors on changes in conduct problems across development. Changes in the bidirectional relationship across development were found in some, but not all, models. While corporal punishment was more strongly related to changes in teacher-reported conduct problems for African-American boys compared to Caucasian boys, more similarities than differences were found between the ethnic groups in terms of the bidirectional associations examined.     

Using a stimulus correlated with reprimands to suppress automatically maintained eye poking

A functional analysis indicated that chronic eye poking exhibited by a woman with profound mental retardation persisted in the absence of social contingencies. We initiated a procedure in which a therapist delivered a punisher (mild reprimand) contingent on eye poking in the presence, but not the absence, of a neutral stimulus (wristbands). Subsequently, eye poking was suppressed when the participant wore the wristbands in novel environments without the reprimand contingency.     

Asymmetry of reinforcement and punishment in human choice

The hypothesis that a penny lost is valued more highly than a penny earned was tested in human choice. Five participants clicked a computer mouse under concurrent variable-interval schedules of monetary reinforcement. In the no-punishment condition, the schedules arranged monetary gain. In the punishment conditions, a schedule of monetary loss was superimposed on one response alternative. Deviations from generalized matching using the free parameters c (sensitivity to reinforcement) and log k (bias) were compared in the no-punishment and punishment conditions. The no-punishment conditions yielded values of log k that approximated zero for all participants, indicating no bias. In the punishment condition, values of log k deviated substantially from zero, revealing a 3-fold bias toward the unpunished alternative. Moreover, the c parameters were substantially smaller in punished conditions. The values for bias and sensitivity under punishment did not change significantly when the measure of net reinforcers (gains minus losses) was applied to the analysis. These results mean that punishment reduced the sensitivity of behavior to reinforcement and biased performance toward the unpunished alternative. We concluded that a single punisher subtracted more value than a single reinforcer added, indicating an asymmetry in the law of effect.     

第三方惩罚与社会规范激活——社会责任感与情绪的作用

社会规范需要被激活才能显著影响个体行为,第三方惩罚（TP）正是这样一个激活的过程。本研究将TP引入独裁者博弈（DG）,社会规范被激活的被试参与了TP与DG,未激活的被试只参与了DG。结果表明,前者在TP之后显著提升了DG中的亲社会行为。进一步的分析发现,在社会规范激活过程中,社会责任感越高的个体被激活的程度越高,对违背社会规范的行为产生的愤怒情绪也越高,从而产生了更高水平的亲社会行为。在排除了实验中其他因素和相关理论的解释后,这一基本的实验结果表明社会规范激活受到社会责任感的影响并伴随着特定情绪的激发。     

Behavioral economic influences on treatments designed to decrease destructive behavior.

In behavioral economics terms, response allocation is viewed as an exchange between the price of and the demand for reinforcers associated with various responses. In this study, behavioral economics principles were used to develop and evaluate a treatment package that reduced destructive behavior to zero while communication and compliance were increased.     

宋代理学家的犯罪心理学思想研究

以二程和朱熹为代表的理学家的犯罪心理学思想比较丰富,对后世的犯罪心理学思想的发展具有重要影响。这里,我们拟从人性与犯罪、人欲与犯罪、刑罚与教化等三个方面对宋代理学家的犯罪心理学思想作一些初步探讨。     

群体偏好与年级对小学生利他惩罚行为的影响

采用独裁者博弈（DG）探讨了群体偏好对不同年级小学生利他惩罚行为的影响。研究1对450名小学生利他惩罚行为的年级发展特点进行了测查。研究2以168名小学生为被试,考察了在独裁者博弈中与独裁者的关系、性别与年级对小学生（第三方）利他惩罚行为的影响。研究3以180名小学生为被试,考察了在独裁者博弈中与接受者的关系、性别与年级对小学生（第三方）利他惩罚行为的影响。结果发现：（1）利他惩罚行为在1至3年级之间有显著增长,3至5年级之间不仅没有增加反而有所下降。（2）3年级小学生开始表现出明显的群体偏好。（3）利他惩罚行为的性别差异不明显,与女生比男生更利他的预期相左。结论：小学生至少在6岁就已经出现了利他惩罚行为且逐渐表现出群体偏好;小学生道德行为发展中可能存在“3年级现象”;女生可能更愿意通过非惩罚的方式达成公平。     

公共物品困境中惩罚的形式与作用

公共物品困境中对惩罚的操纵表明：惩罚搭便车可以维持群体内的合作行为。早期研究表明, 惩罚的设置有助于建立社会合作规范, 有代价惩罚、利他惩罚和第三方惩罚等惩罚形式为间接互惠提供了合理的解释。随着实证研究的进一步深入, 惩罚表现出新的形式, 如自私惩罚和反社会惩罚, 被惩罚者的威胁报复将使合作者不再继续惩罚搭便车行为, 导致合作行为的减少直至消失。正当性理论、道德情感理论和文化基因协同进化理论表明惩罚的存在具有一定的必要性和价值, 惩罚的作用存在框架效应。本文介绍了一些有关的中介变量, 如利他、信任、声誉、文化、期望等, 可以对惩罚作用的积极面和破坏性予以适当的解释, 也为合作的心理机制研究提供新的视角。     

人际距离调节自我-他人的神经表征：来自oFRN的证据

为考察人际距离对自我-他人表征的影响, 采用金钱博弈任务检测了在自己操作、观察朋友操作和观察陌生同学操作时的脑电成分反馈相关负波(FRN)。结果发现, 观察任务产生了类似于自我操作时输钱反馈的负偏向, 即观察者反馈负波(oFRN); 在观察条件下, 被试自评与朋友的亲近程度高于同学(p<0.001), 两者引起的oFRN达到边缘显著性水平(p = 0.062), 亲近程度与oFRN呈显著相关(p = 0.041)。前者说明自我和他人具有相似表征, 后者则反映了自我对他人信息表征的替代性体验可能受人际距离所调节。