ltruistic punishment is a behaviour in which individuals punish others at a ost to themselves - PDF document

ltruistic punishment is a behaviour inwhich individuals punish others at aost to themselves in order to providea public good.Fehr and GŠchterpresentperimental evidence in humans indicat-ing that negative emotions towards non-operators motivate punishment,which,in turn,provokes a high degree ofcoopera-tion.Using Fehr and GŠchterÕs originaldata,we provide an alternative analysis oftheir experiment that suggests that egalit-arian motives are more important thanmotives for punishing non-cooperativebehaviour.This finding is consistent withidence that humans may have an evolu-tionary incentive to punish the highestearners in order to promote equality,ratherthan cooperationthe experiment by Fehr and GŠchter,oups with four members played a public-good game.Each participant was given aninitial endowment of20 money units (MUs),which they could either keep or contribute(entirely or partially) to a group project.ForeryMU invested in the project,each mem- 1.Fehr,E.& GŠchter,S.Nature2.Boehm,C.archy in the Forest: The Evolution Egalitarian Behaviour(Harvard Univ.Press,Cambridge, brief communications arising 6 JANUARY 2004www.nature.com/naturehr and GŠchter reply Ñ Fowler et an important question.They correctlyargue that the desire to reduce inequalitymay motivate cooperators who altruisticallypunish free riders in our experimentslso,the evolutionary history ofhumans sug-gests that egalitarianism shaped many E.Fehr & S.GŠchter © 2005 N G