• Graduate Programs
    • Tinbergen Institute Research Master in Economics
      • Why Tinbergen Institute?
      • Research Master
      • Admissions
      • All Placement Records
      • PhD Vacancies
    • Facilities
    • Research Master Business Data Science
    • Education for external participants
    • Summer School
    • Tinbergen Institute Lectures
    • PhD Vacancies
  • Research
  • Browse our Courses
  • Events
    • Summer School
      • Applied Public Policy Evaluation
      • Deep Learning
      • Development Economics
      • Economics of Blockchain and Digital Currencies
      • Economics of Climate Change
      • The Economics of Crime
      • Foundations of Machine Learning with Applications in Python
      • From Preference to Choice: The Economic Theory of Decision-Making
      • Inequalities in Health and Healthcare
      • Marketing Research with Purpose
      • Markets with Frictions
      • Modern Toolbox for Spatial and Functional Data
      • Sustainable Finance
      • Tuition Fees and Payment
      • Business Data Science Summer School Program
    • Events Calendar
    • Events Archive
    • Tinbergen Institute Lectures
    • 2026 Tinbergen Institute Opening Conference
    • Annual Tinbergen Institute Conference
  • News
  • Summer School
  • Alumni
    • PhD Theses
    • Master Theses
    • Selected PhD Placements
    • Key alumni publications
    • Alumni Community
Home | Events Archive | Rights, Duties, and Taboos: The social Codex of Peer Punishment
Seminar

Rights, Duties, and Taboos: The social Codex of Peer Punishment

  • Series
    CREED Seminars
  • Speaker(s)
    Urs Fischbacher (University of Konstanz, Germany)
  • Field
    Behavioral Economics
  • Location
    University of Amsterdam, E0.03
    Amsterdam
  • Date and time

    March 02, 2023
    16:00 - 17:15

Cooperation is a central part of human life but is difficult to establish and uphold by itself. Peer-punishment can boost cooperation when defectors are punished and cooperators are spared. However, peer punishment can also harm cooperation when punishment is used in a dysfunctional way. In an experiment, we investigate how people assess the appropriateness of different forms of punishment, including second order punishment or revenge. By assessing the appropriateness of punishment as well as of non-punishment, we can distinguish between rights, duties and taboos. We find that the most important determinants of the appropriateness of punishment can be described by three “commandments”: 1. It is a taboo to punish cooperators. 2. It is a taboo for defectors to punish. 3. It is a duty to punish people who violate commandments 1 or 2.

Sign-up for mailing list: Please email Natalie Lee.