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Altruistic Punishment

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Costly punishment; Moralistic punishment; Strong negative reciprocity

Definition

A willingness to impose sanctions on norm violators at the punisher’s own cost, in the absence of (immediate) material return

Introduction

Altruistic punishment is one of the central mechanisms and manifestations of strong reciprocity, the theory of which is regarded today as one of the most influential attempts at explaining the evolution of human cooperation (Bowles and Gintis 2011; Fehr and Fischbacher 2003, 2004; Fehr et al. 2002; Fehr and Gächter 2002; Fehr and Gintis 2007; Fehr and Henrich 2002; Fehr and Rockenbach 2004; Fowler 2005; Gintis et al. 2003, 2008; McElreath et al. 2003). It denotes a predisposition to cooperate with others and a willingness to punish at personal cost those who violate cooperative norms. This altruistic form of punishment has been well documented both in real life and in laboratory experiments. It is altruistic in the sense that it occurs even in situations where...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent Researcher, Pécs, Hungary

    Tünde Paál

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  1. Tünde Paál
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Correspondence to Tünde Paál .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Kevin Beaver

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Paál, T. (2019). Altruistic Punishment. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1626-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1626-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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