The Influence Of Social Distance On Altruistic Punishment—the Regulating Role Of Gender And Self-construction

Altruistic punishment is considered to be a kind of behavior maintaining social equity since it has been proposed. The number of previous researches on this area is great, and these researches range from production mechanism to the social impact.Through two different kinds of perspectives——the second party and the third party,this study aims to discuss the differences between altruistic punishment when people are in the face of different social distance. Besides, combining with the two variables of gender and self-construction, we further analyze the moderating effects of gender and different self-construal on the relationship between social distance and altruistic punishment. The study used a questionnaire survey of 400 college students in two universities in Nanjing, and dealt with the data with the aid of the SPSS statistical analysis,descriptive statistics, analysis of variance and other methods. Related conclusions are as follows:(1) The main effect of social distance is significant. In the perspective of the third party, the intensity of altruistic punishment are listed in an effective order as below: strangers, ordinary friends, lovers, good friends; In the perspective of the second party, the main effect of social distance is significant, and the intensity of altruistic punishment are listed in an effective order as below: strangers, ordinary friends,lovers,good friends.(2) The main effect of self-construal is significant. In the perspective of the third party, independent self-construal individuals imposed less punishment than dependent self-construal individuals significantly; However, In the perspective of the second party, the result is opposite.(3) The moderating effect of self-construal is significant. In the perspective of the third party, compared with other levels, independent self-construal has a significant difference in the level of strangers and ordinary friends, dependent self-construal has a significant difference in the level of strangers; In the perspective of the second party,independent self-construal has no significant difference in any levels,but dependent self-construal has a significant difference in the level of strangers.(4) The main effect of gender was not significant, but its moderating effect is significant. In the perspective of the third party, compared with other levels, male has a significant difference in the level of strangers, but female has no significant difference in any levels; In the perspective of the second party, male has a significant difference in the level of strangers and ordinary friends, but female has no significant difference in any levels.