'Altruistic' and 'Antisocial' Punishers are One and the Same

摘要: In certain economic experiments, some participants willingly pay a cost to punish peers who contribute too little the public good. Because such punishment can lead improved group outcomes, this costly has been conceived of as altruistic. Here, we provide evidence that individual variation in propensity low contributions is unrelated altruism. First, use was uncorrelated with contribution good, contrary hypothesis punishers are proximally motivated by prosocial preferences. Second, positively correlated across situations where typically beneficial and detrimental, well radically different strategic structures. These findings contrast sharply premise tendency fruitfully be regarded an adaptation for solving social dilemmas.