Anti-social Punishment
Martin Sustrik,
LessWrong,
Oct 15, 2018
I wish this study had been replicated in North America. It is nonetheless a fascinating study of cooperative behaviours, albeit under highly artificial conditions. The gist is that while punishing free-riders usually increases cooperation, in some cases the punishment actually reduces cooperation. In cases where the benefit of cooperation are minimized (for example, where corruption empties the common pool before people can benefit) people actively oppose efforts to make them cooperate. The author suggests that the motivation is psychological (" You've punished me for free-riding so now I'll punish you just that you know how it feels!") but I think the response is a much more pragmatic push-back against ineffective forms of cooperation. Via Doug Belshaw.
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