The evolution of antisocial punishment in optional public goods games
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Cooperation, where one individual incurs a cost to help another, is a fundamental building block of the natural world and human society. It has been suggested that costly punishment can promote the evolution of cooperation, with the threat of punishment deterring free-riders. Recent experiments, however, have revealed the existence of 'antisocial' punishment, where non-cooperators punish cooperators. While various theoretical models find that punishment can promote the evolution of cooperation, these models a priori exclude the possibility of antisocial punishment. Here we extend the standard theory of optional public goods games to include the full set of punishment strategies. We find that punishment no longer increases cooperation, and that selection favours substantial levels of antisocial punishment for a wide range of parameters. Furthermore, we conduct behavioural experiments, showing results consistent with our model predictions. As opposed to an altruistic act that promotes cooperation, punishment is mostly a self-interested tool for protecting oneself against potential competitors.
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Punishment-based mechanisms reduce the overall social good.
“First, they reduce the overall social good2,3,6.”
From Cooperation without punishment (2023) · cites this paper as [6]
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Reputation effects drive the joint evolution of cooperation and social rewarding
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Multilevel determinants of collaboration between organised criminal groups
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Rand, D. G., & Nowak, M. A.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rand, David G.
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2011-08-16
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 434-434
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3279747
- OpenAlex
- W2133772963
- Cited by
- 350
- References
- 79
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 35 · 2014: 29 · 2013: 32 · 2012: 25
- FWCI
- 98.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (37874)
- John Templeton Foundation
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (R01GM078986)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- antisocial punishment, evolution of cooperation, costly punishment, free-riding, punishment strategies, altruism, behavioural experiments
- MeSH terms
- Cooperative Behavior, Biological Evolution, Female, Game Theory, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, Male, Models, Psychological, Punishment, Social Behavior
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