The Impact Of Resource Recession And Group Status On Atruistic Punishment

Through human cooperation, participates may bear the cost of punishing rule-breakers. This kind of behavior is defied as altruistic punishment. Altruistic punishment provides a solution to avoid unfair behavior during cooperation. Because of that, cooperators will benefit from a high quality cooperation without unfair behavior.So far, most researchers draw their attention on altruistic punishment happened in interpersonal cooperation. We believe that altruistic punishment in cooperation between groups is worth exploring. Taking altruistic punishment between groups as dependant variable, this research is hoping to figure out relationship between resource recession, group status and altruistic punishment.According to paradigm used by Rodeheffer and Hill(2012), we invited 7 subjects to rate. The prime material of resource recession was selected after rating.Study1, a mixed desigh of 2(resource level: resource recession VS control group)*2(group status: advantage group VS disadvantage group)*3(unfair level: low VS middle VS high) is used to study altruistic punishment towards out-group member. The result show:(1) The main effect of unfair level is significant. The higher unfair level is, The stronger altruistic punishment towards out-group member will be.(2) The main effect of resource level is significant. Subjects from resource recession group do more altruistic punishment than subjects from subjects from control group.Study2 contain two study. Study2 A is a mixed desigh of 2(resource level: resource recession VS control group) * 2(group status: advantage group VS disadvantage group) * 3(unfair level: low VS middle VS high) is used to study altruistic punishment towards in-group member. The result show:(1) The main effect of unfair level is significant. The higher unfair level is, The stronger altruistic punishment towards out-group member will be.(2) The main effect of resource level is significant. Subjects from resource recession group do less altruistic punishment than subjects from subjects from control group. Study2 B is a single factor design. Independent variable is resource level(resource recession VS control group). Dependent variable is altruistic punishment and anger toward unfair. The result show: Anger toward unfair completely mediates resource recession and altruistic punishment.To sum up, the result of whole study shows that, under resource recession condition, subjects from resource recession group do more altruistic punishment toward out-group member than subjects from subjects from control group. Subjects from resource recession group do less altruistic punishment toward in-group member than subjects from subjects from control group. The higher unfair level is, The stronger altruistic punishment towards both out-group member and in-group member will be.