The Influence Of Third-party Punishment On Pro-social Behavior:Social Norm Demonstration And Moral Emotion

Pro-social behavior refers to the behavior that an individual intends to benefit other individuals,groups or the whole society.Pro-social behavior requires individuals to make certain sacrifices.If people only care about their own interests,they are often reluctant to make pro-social behavior.Therefore,the opposite of pro-social behavior can be regarded as self-interested behavior.Scholars generally believe that punishment has a deterrent effect as an external negative incentive,so it can reduce self-interested behavior and promote pro-social behavior.However,the results of many studies are inconsistent with the expectation of deterrent effects,indicating that such a single perspective cannot fully explain the impact of punishment on prosocial behavior.This research proposes the social norm demonstration effect: punishment toward self-interested behavior,especially third-party punishment,can also change the observer's perception of social norms,and thus promote pro-social behavior.Study 1 explored the social norm demonstration effect of third-party punishment.Experiment 1 found that,regardless of whether subjects are facing threats of punishment in the dictator's game,previously observing that a third party had punished the unfair distribution of others would promote them to make fairer distributions.Experiment 2 further showed that social norm perception plays an mediating role in the process.Compared with those observing that the third party did not make a punishment,participants who observed third-party punishment believed in more positive descriptive norm and injunctive norm,and therefore made fairer distributions.Study 2 examined how the source of punishment might affect the social norm demonstration effect.Experiment 3a found that third-party punishment conveyed more positive social norm information than second-party punishment.The reason is that second-party punishment is believed to be driven by more self-serving motives.Experiment 3b found that,due to the different social norms communicated by third-party punishment and second-party punishment,the former could promote observers to make fairer distributions than did the latter.Experiment 4 tested the moderating effect of source of punishment on the social norm demonstration effect.The results showed that the social norm demonstration effect of punishment was unique to third-party punishment and did not exist in second-party punishment.Study 3 investigated the role of moral emotion in the social norm demonstration effect of third-party punishment.Experiment 5 found that,in addition to directly influencing decision-making,positive social norm perception also promoted fair distribution by inspiring individuals to feel guilty when they made unfair distribution;but the pride that individuals felt when they made fair distribution did not have an influence during the process.Using scenarios related to pro-social behaviors in daily life,Experiment 6 replicated the serial mediation effect: third-party punishment changed the observer's perception of social norms,and further influenced the guilt of its own self-interested behavior,and ultimately affected its decision-making.In sum,the results of this research show that third-party punishment(but not second-party punishment)can affect observer's pro-social behavior by changing their perception of social norms and experience of moral emotion during decision-making.The current research provides both a new perspective and emprical evidence for understanding the impact of punishment on prosocial behavior,which contributes to theoretical advancement and has practical meaning.