Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists

In the Ultimatum Game (UG), incurring a cost to punish inequity is commonly termed altruistic punishment. This behaviour is thought to benefit others if the defector becomes more equitable in future interactions. However, clear connections between punishment in the UG and altruistic behaviours outsi...

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Main Authors:	Brethel-Haurwitz, Kristin M., Stoycos, Sarah A., Cardinale, Elise M., Huebner, Bryce, Marsh, Abigail A.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Nature Publishing Group 2016
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4704064/

id	pubmed-4704064
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-47040642016-01-19 Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists Brethel-Haurwitz, Kristin M. Stoycos, Sarah A. Cardinale, Elise M. Huebner, Bryce Marsh, Abigail A. Article In the Ultimatum Game (UG), incurring a cost to punish inequity is commonly termed altruistic punishment. This behaviour is thought to benefit others if the defector becomes more equitable in future interactions. However, clear connections between punishment in the UG and altruistic behaviours outside the laboratory are lacking. We tested the altruistic punishment hypothesis in a sample of extraordinarily altruistic adults, predicting that if punishing inequity is predictive of altruism more broadly, extraordinary altruists should punish more frequently. Results showed that punishment was not more prevalent in extraordinary altruists than controls. However, a self-reported altruism measure previously linked to peer evaluations but not behaviour, and on which extraordinary altruists and controls did not differ, did predict punishment. These findings support suggestions that altruistic punishment in the UG is better termed costly punishment and may be motivated by social, but not necessarily prosocial, concerns. Results also support prior suggestions that self-reported altruism may not reliably predict altruistic behaviour. Nature Publishing Group 2016-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC4704064/ /pubmed/26739364 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep18974 Text en Copyright © 2016, Macmillan Publishers Limited http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Brethel-Haurwitz, Kristin M. Stoycos, Sarah A. Cardinale, Elise M. Huebner, Bryce Marsh, Abigail A.
spellingShingle	Brethel-Haurwitz, Kristin M. Stoycos, Sarah A. Cardinale, Elise M. Huebner, Bryce Marsh, Abigail A. Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists
author_facet	Brethel-Haurwitz, Kristin M. Stoycos, Sarah A. Cardinale, Elise M. Huebner, Bryce Marsh, Abigail A.
author_sort	Brethel-Haurwitz, Kristin M.
title	Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists
title_short	Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists
title_full	Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists
title_fullStr	Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists
title_full_unstemmed	Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists
title_sort	is costly punishment altruistic? exploring rejection of unfair offers in the ultimatum game in real-world altruists
description	In the Ultimatum Game (UG), incurring a cost to punish inequity is commonly termed altruistic punishment. This behaviour is thought to benefit others if the defector becomes more equitable in future interactions. However, clear connections between punishment in the UG and altruistic behaviours outside the laboratory are lacking. We tested the altruistic punishment hypothesis in a sample of extraordinarily altruistic adults, predicting that if punishing inequity is predictive of altruism more broadly, extraordinary altruists should punish more frequently. Results showed that punishment was not more prevalent in extraordinary altruists than controls. However, a self-reported altruism measure previously linked to peer evaluations but not behaviour, and on which extraordinary altruists and controls did not differ, did predict punishment. These findings support suggestions that altruistic punishment in the UG is better termed costly punishment and may be motivated by social, but not necessarily prosocial, concerns. Results also support prior suggestions that self-reported altruism may not reliably predict altruistic behaviour.
publisher	Nature Publishing Group
publishDate	2016
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4704064/
_version_	1613520909926137856

Is costly punishment altruistic? Exploring rejection of unfair offers in the Ultimatum Game in real-world altruists

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