The Role Of Social Punishment Information On Third-party Punishment——an Interpretation Based On Social Norm Activation Theory

Third-party punishment refers to an individual who is willing to pay a personal price to punish the offender in the face of violations of social norms that are not related to his or her own interests.Previous studies have conducted in-depth discussions on the evolution and cognitive mechanisms of third-party punishment.Most of these studies focus on individual third-party punishments.However,in the real world,when individuals are subject to third-party punishment,most of them are exposed to a large amount of social punishment information.Few scholars have explored the difference between the individual's third-party punishment behavior after the individual's sole punishment and the social punishment information,and the mechanism behind it.At present,most of these studies are aimed at individuals to conduct third-party punishments on their own,but in the real world,when individuals are subject to third-party punishment,most of them are exposed to a large amount of social punishment information,and few scholars explore the individual alone.The difference between third-party punishment and the third-party punishment behavior of the individual after receiving the social punishment information.Therefore,this study uses third-party punishment based on the dictator game paradigm and the public goods game paradigm.Through two studies and four experiments,the influence of social punishment information on third-party punishment is explored and explained based on the social norm activation theory.Study one or two experiments by examining the social punishment information(high/low)presented to other peers in the two experimental contexts,and examining whether the third party would change the penalty when performing third-party punishment alone to comply with other third-party punishment decisions.Besides,two experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of different social norms activated by social punishment information on third-party punishment(controlling social approval).Mainly got the following conclusions:(1)Social punishment information has a significant impact on third-party punishment.When the punishment information of the companion is higher,the individual's third-party punishment will be higher;when the punishment information of the companion is lower,the individual's third-party punishment will also be decrease accordingly;(2)Descriptive norms and injunctive norms have a significant effect on the third-party punishment after controlling the social approval.The interaction between the two is significant.When the descriptive norm is low,whatever the injunctive norm is at high or low levels,third-party penalties are low,and when the descriptive norm is higher,the enhancement of the injunctive specification can significantly increase the penalties of third parties.Based on the reality phenomenon,this study pays attention to the influence of social punishment information on the third-party punishment in social context factor,which has certain practical significance.When individuals face social violations,they are often exposed to a large amount of social punishment information,which in turn affects different social norms perceived by individuals,and ultimately affects individual third-party punishment behaviors.Understanding the mechanisms behind them helps individuals make more rational judgments.