No Evidence for moral reward and punishment in an anonymous context.

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State: Public
Version: Final published version
Serval ID
serval:BIB_CC8473E5F058
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
No Evidence for moral reward and punishment in an anonymous context.
Journal
PLoS One
Author(s)
Clavien C., Mersch D.P., Chapuisat M.
ISSN
1932-6203 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1932-6203
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2016
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
11
Number
3
Pages
e0150388
Language
english
Abstract
Human social interactions are regulated by moral norms that define individual obligations and rights. These norms are enforced by punishment of transgressors and reward of followers. Yet, the generality and strength of this drive to punish or reward is unclear, especially when people are not personally involved in the situation and when the actual impact of their sanction is only indirect, i.e., when it diminishes or promotes the social status of the punished or rewarded individual. In a real-life study, we investigated if people are inclined to anonymously punish or reward a person for her past deeds in a different social context. Participants from three socio-professional categories voted anonymously for early career violinists in an important violin competition. We found that participants did not punish an immoral violin candidate, nor did they reward another hyper-moral candidate. On the contrary, one socio-professional category sanctioned hyper-morality. Hence, salient moral information about past behavior did not elicit punishment or reward in an impersonal situation where the impact of the sanction was indirect. We conclude that contextual features play an important role in human motivation to enforce moral norms.
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Create date
15/03/2016 19:49
Last modification date
20/08/2019 15:47
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