Who initiates punishment, who joins punishment? Disentangling types of third-party punishers by neural traits.

ABSTRACT: The act of punishing unfair behavior by unaffected observers (i.e., third-party punishment) is a crucial factor in the functioning of human societies. In everyday life, we see different types of individuals who punish. While some individuals initiate costly punishment against an unfair person independently of what other observers do (independent punishers), others condition their punishment engagement on the presence of another person who punishes (conditional punishers). Still others do not want to partake in any sort of punishment (nonpunishers). Although these distinct behavioral types have a divergent impact on human society, the sources of heterogeneity are poorly understood. We present novel laboratory evidence on the existence of these three types. We use anatomical brain characteri

SUBMITTER: Baumgartner T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8559474 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature