不仅报仇而且不公平还能释放出惩罚的冲动
每个人都想要一块馅饼。
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Imagine you and your friend are at a party and someone orders pizza.假设您和您的朋友参加聚会,有人在订购披萨。 You're starving.饿死了You put a couple of slices on your plate and sit down at the table.您在盘子上放了几片,坐在桌旁。 Before you start eating, you excuse yourself to wash your hands.开始吃饭之前,请原谅自己洗手。

On your way back from the bathroom, you look across the room just in time to see your friend grab one of the slices off your plate and start to eat it.在从浴室回来的路上,您及时地看了看整个房间,看到您的朋友从盘子里拿出一块来开始吃。 This would probably make you mad, right?这可能会让你生气,对吗? You might even feel an urge to get back at them somehow.您甚至可能会想以某种方式重新找回他们。

Now imagine a slightly different scenario.现在想象一个稍微不同的场景。 You and your friend are at the same party but before you have the chance to get pizza, you excuse yourself to wash your hands.您和您的朋友在同一个聚会上,但是在您有机会获得披萨之前,请原谅自己洗手。 While you're gone, the pizza is served and your friend grabs a couple slices for themself but only one for you.当您不在家时,披萨便送达了,您的朋友为自己准备了几片,但只有一份给您。

This would also probably make you kind of mad, right?这也可能使您发疯,对吗? But why?但为什么? This time your friend didn't actually steal your pizza, so why does it feel like they did something wrong?这次您的朋友实际上没有偷您的披萨,那为什么感觉他们做错了呢?


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答案是,不公正本身就令人不安-令人不安的程度足以驱使人们惩罚那些从不公平结果中受益的人。

My 同事 I 最近完成了 心理实验 that supports this concept.支持这个概念。 The idea that unfairness alone can motivate punishment runs counter to a lot of existing research that suggests单靠不公平就可以激发惩罚的观点与许多现有研究相反 惩罚 主要由 复仇.

Why does this matter?为什么这么重要? Because understanding what motivates punishment can help shed light on the functions it serves in human societies – and possibly even why punishment evolved in the first place.因为了解激励的动机可以帮助我们弄清惩罚在人类社会中的作用-甚至可能解释了为什么惩罚首先产生。

威慑水平

以复仇为基础的惩罚可能起着重要的威慑作用-鼓励伤害您的人将来表现更好。

另一方面,基于不平等的惩罚可能会起到重要的拉平作用-确保您的状况不比周围的人差,有可能给您带来竞争优势-或至少防止其他人获得太大的提升。

(不仅报仇而且不公正如何释放惩罚的冲动)人类多年来一直关注正义。 georgeclerk / E +通过Getty Images

In our study, we wanted to understand what drives people to punish others.在我们的研究中,我们想了解是什么促使人们惩罚他人。 Is it revenge, inequity or both?是复仇,不公平还是两者兼而有之?

We paired up thousands of participants who had never met in an online economic game in which they made decisions about real money.我们将成千上万的从未参加过在线经济游戏的参与者配对,他们在游戏中做出有关真钱的决定。 In one condition, just as in the first pizza example, one player stole money from another player.在一个条件下,就像第一个披萨示例一样,一个玩家从另一个玩家那里偷了钱。 In some cases, depending on the amount of money the victim started with, stealing meant the thief ended up with more money than the victim.在某些情况下,根据受害者开始的钱数,偷窃意味着小偷最终比受害者得到更多的钱。

We expected this theft would motivate victims to punish and we were right: People do not like being stolen from and would pay to punish thieves, reducing their income in the game.我们希望这种盗窃行为会激励受害者进行惩罚,而我们是对的:人们不喜欢被盗并愿意为惩罚盗贼而付出代价,从而减少了他们在游戏中的收入。 This evidence supports the idea that punishment is motivated by revenge.这一证据支持了以复仇为动机进行惩罚的观点。

However, this scenario didn't tell us whether people also punish in response to unfairness.但是,这种情况并没有告诉我们人们是否还会因不公平而受到惩罚。 To test this possibility, we designed a similar situation – one that resulted in one player ending up with more than the other – but, in this case, no theft occurred.为了测试这种可能性,我们设计了一种类似的情况-一种导致一名玩家比另一名玩家更多的结果-但是,在这种情况下,没有发生盗窃案。 Rather, like the second pizza example, one player had a chance to gift money to the other player, at no cost to themself, or the money disappeared.而是像第二个披萨示例一样,一个玩家有机会免费向另一位玩家赠送金钱,否则他们就消失了。

In these cases, a player who refused to give money to the other would sometimes end up with more money – the unfair outcome we were curious about.在这种情况下,一个拒绝给对方钱的玩家有时会获得更多的钱–我们好奇的不公平结果。 Interestingly, we found people were more likely to punish when they had less money than the other player – even when no theft had occurred.有趣的是,我们发现人们在钱财比其他玩家少的情况下更有可能受到惩罚-即使没有发生盗窃。

这向我们表明,即使不存在盗窃之类的直接犯罪,仅凭不公平就足以激发惩罚。

多用途行为

Our new findings are exciting because they suggest that people have different motivations to punish others.我们的新发现令人兴奋,因为它们表明人们惩罚他人的动机不同。 Sure, people are motivated to seek revenge on those who have stolen from them, but they are also willing to punish in cases where they simply have less than others.当然,人们有动机去报复那些从他们那里偷来的人,但是他们也愿意对那些比别人少的人进行惩罚。

This finding suggests punishment likely evolved for different uses – deterrence as well as leveling the playing field – showcasing how one behavior can serve different functions.这一发现表明,惩罚可能因不同的用途而发生了变化-威慑和公平竞争-展示了一种行为如何能够发挥不同的作用。 That punishment can serve such different functions implies that both deterrence and resource leveling might have increased the genetic fitness of our ancestors.惩罚可以起到不同的作用,这意味着威慑力和资源平衡可能增加了我们祖先的遗传适应能力。 In other words, as humans evolved, people who punished to deter others or level the playing field passed on more of their genes than those who punished less.换句话说,随着人类的发展,那些惩罚以吓阻他人或平整运动场的人传递的基因要多于那些惩罚较少的人。

So next time you're deciding whether to take more than your fair share of pizza, maybe think twice.因此,下一次您要决定是否要拿比您应得的披萨更多的东西时,请三思而后行。 Otherwise you might unwittingly become the target of a hungry punisher looking for justice.否则,您可能会无意间成为饥饿的惩罚者寻求正义的目标。谈话

关于作者

Paul Deutchman,心理学博士研究生, 波士顿学院

本文重新发表 谈话 根据知识共享许可。 阅读 原创文章.