Gender Difference Of Altruistic Punishment And The Underlying Mechanism

Social decision making, which takes place in the social circumstance is usually influenced by others-concerned thought. For the decision maker, it is not simply a decision, but a deliberate process to weigh the gains and losses of both sides. It is reported that under the social scenario, individuals tend to perform in a particular way, such as reciprocal, cooperation, unfairness aversion, altruistic punishment and so on. The aim of the present research is to explore the gender difference of altruistic punishment and the underlying mechanism by employing the Ultimatum Game (UG).Altruistic punishment refers to punishing the group member who violates the social norm at the cost of one’s own expense. This is an special form of prosocial behavior. No conclusion has been reached about the gender difference of altruistic punishment. For those employing the UG task to tackle this issue, some found male more prone to punish the violator, some found women, still others found no gender difference. Besides, former researches focused on this issue still stagnate on the stage of phenomenal description or simply attributes the phenomenon to the stereotype of gender social role. Up to now, no empirical study has been carried out to reveal the underlying mechanism. In the present research, we intended to explore the gender difference of altruistic punishment and the underlying mechanism by employing Chinese participants. In the first study, we adopted the classical UG task to test whether gender difference existed. In the latter two studies, according to the dual system model, we utilized two methods, imposing time pressure and depleting self-control resources, to separate these two systems and further explain the reasons that caused the gender difference.In study 1, using the classical UG task (one-shot & repeated), we intended to test whether gender difference would appear when it is administered among Chinese. Total of 84 participants,46 males and 38 females were recruited. Besides, we also administered the BAS/BIS Scale, Social Value Orientation Scale and the Justice Sensitivity Scale, which are reported to have relationships with the altruistic punishment behavior. Results showed that taking the rejection rate as dependent variable, only the main effect of fairness reached significance. In the correlation analysis between questionnaires and altruistic punishment, only the correlation coefficient between victim sensitivity and rejection rate reached significance. Questionnaire results revealed that gender difference only existed in Reward Response dimension of BAS, with women scored higher, which is in accordance with former researches. The vain found of gender difference could be explained as (1) It is due to the materials, choice in one-shot trail is too arbitrary. And in the latter part of the repeated game, strategy might be formed, which could impact participants’ choice. (2) In the current experimental circumstance (the time course set), no gender difference did exist, which is in accordance with former researches. While the similar acceptance rates of men and women did not necessarily mean the identical psychological process, which we intended to investigate in study 2 and 3 by manipulating time pressure and depleting self-control resources.In study 2, we introduced a second independent variable, time pressure. Under time pressure, we respond automatically, with little or no consciousness. While, with no time pressure, we have enough time to contemplate, which of course calls for self-control resources. Total of 74 participants,36 males and 38 females were recruited. Participants assigned to the no time pressure group performed first in order to determine the time constraint for the no time pressure group. Then all participants complete the Delay Discounting Task and the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAEI) in sequence. The results indicated an interaction between gender and time pressure. Specifically, the simple effect of gender revealed that, under no time pressure, men’s acceptance rate was higher than that of women; while no difference appeared under time pressure. The simple effect of time pressure indicated that, men rejected less unfair offers under no time limits; while women did not exhibited such trend. The main dependent variable of DDT, delay discounting rate k did not show gender difference, which to some extent reflected the similar impulsivity for monetary reward. For the STAEI, gender difference only existed in the anger expression-out dimension, with men scored higher. This is in accordance with the higher rejection rate of men under time pressure. Then we could attribute the gender difference of rejection rate under time pressure to the negative emotion evoked. To sum, men who were offered more time tended to control their negative emotion more effectively and finally accepted more unfair offers. For women, the abundant time left to them was used to inhibit the monetary temptation and form the choice mainly guided by the fairness-concern motive.In study 3, based on the self-control strength model, we intended to investigate whether gender difference would appear under depleted and non-depleted self-control conditions. Total of 119 participants,60 males and 59 females were recruited. The experiment procedure was to rate the current emotion, perform the assigned Color-word Stroop Task, again rate the current emotion and finally finish the UG task. The results revealed that, For women, the rejection rate under depleted condition was lower than that of non-depleted condition. For men, they just witnessed the opposite trend, though the difference did not reach significance; Under depleted condition the rejection rate of men was far higher than that of women, which was in accordance with the higher negative emotion evoked. No gender difference appeared under non-depleted condition. These results were partly in accordance with study 2. In terms of gender itself, the findings of study 2 and 3 were quiet similar. More time and self-control resources provided, men would reject less unfair offers, whereas women showed the opposite trend.To sum, the conclusions are as follows. First, faced with the unfair treatment, men and women have different immediate response,with man evoked more negative emotion and higher rejection rate. Second, in the common situation, no gender difference of the rejection rate appeared, whilethe similar behavior output might be promoted by different mechanisms. Third, given adequate time and self-control resources, men tended to mainly regulate their negative emotion and behave in a way suggested by the rational economist hypothesis (maximize monetary income). Women, on the other hand, tried to inhibit the self-interest motive and maintain the norm of fair.