The Effect Of Dishonest Degree And Punishment Cost On Third-party Punishment Demand

The social norm activation theory believes that when an individual realizes that someone in the surrounding social life has committed a behavior that violates a social norm,then the individual may punish an individual who violated the norm,that is,a third-party punishment.Third-party punishment is more purely altruistic and plays a very important role in maintaining social norms.This study adopts the experimental paradigm of trust game,and discusses the influence of dishonest degree and punishment cost on third-party punishment demand through three experiments.The conclusions of this study are as follows:Experiment 1 set up honest and dishonest conditions,and discussed third party punishment under the condition of honest and dishonest.It is found that there is a significantly increase in third-party punishment under dishonest condition,which proved that dishonesty invites third-party punishment.Experiment 2 made a distinction among dishonest conditions,and discussed the difference of third-party punishment under the different degrees of dishonesty.The participants were asked to rate the degree of dishonesty about the dishonest information,and then chose whether to punish.It is found that there is a significant difference among the ratings that participants made for the different allocation in the dishonest conditions.The greater the difference between the allocation scheme in dishonest information and the actual restitution,the higher the degree of dishonesty.However,it was also found that under all dishonest conditions,there was no significant difference in third-party punishment,that is,the dishonesty degree did not affect the third-party punishment.In order to exclude the effect of rating on third party punishment,Experiment 3selected the typical three kinds of dishonesty degree as a condition of high,medium and low degree of dishonesty,which is according the rating that participants made in experiment 2.In order to make the participants more participatory in the trust game process,experiment 3 also added in the variable of punishment cost.There is nolonger let the participants choose whether to punish,but to let the participants choose the voluntary cost which to punish the dishonest person.It also discussed that the the influence of dishonesty degree and punishment cost on the demand for third-party punishment.It turns out that the higher the level of dishonesty,the higher the cost of voluntary spending,that is,the greater the need for third-party punishment.And under the condition of high,medium and low degree of dishonesty,the higher the cost,voluntarily choose to spend the cost of implementing the behavior of the punishment is less,that is,the higher the cost to be spent,the lower the third-party punishment requirement.In summary,the results of the study found that dishonesty could cause the individual's demand for third-party punishment;the higher the degree of dishonesty,the higher the demand for the third-party punishment,but the higher the cost required for the punishment,the third party punishment would be reduced.