Reward and Punishment in Social Dilemmas: (Series in Human Cooperation)

One of the key scientific challenges is the puzzle of human cooperation. Why do people cooperate? Why do people help strangers, even sometimes at a major cost to themselves? Why do people want to punish others who violate norms and undermine collective interests? Reward and punishment is a classic theme in research on social dilemmas. More recently, it has received considerable attention from scientists working in various disciplines such as economics, neuroscience, and psychology. We know now that reward and punishment can promote cooperation in so-called public good dilemmas, where people need to decide how much from their personal resources to contribute to the public good. Clearly, enjoying the contributions of others while not contributing is tempting. Punishment (and reward) are effective in reducing free-riding. Yet the recent explosion of research has also triggered many questions. For example, who can reward and punish most effectively? Is punishment effective in any culture? What are the emotions that accompany reward and punishment? Even if reward and punishment are effective, are they also efficient — knowing that rewards and punishment are costly to administer? How can sanctioning systems best organized to be reduce free-riding? The chapters in this book, the first in a series on human cooperation, explore the workings of reward and punishment, how they should be organized, and their functions in society, thereby providing a synthesis of the psychology, economics, and neuroscience of human cooperation.

Table of Contents:
PrefaceChapter 1: Reward and Punishment in Social Dilemmas: An IntroductionPaul A. M. Van Lange, Bettina Rockenbach, and Toshio YamagishiPART 1: THE WORKINGS OF REWARD AND PUNISHMENTChapter 2: When Punishment Supports Cooperation: Insights from Voluntary Contribution ExperimentsLouis PuttermanChapter 3: How (and When) Reward and Punishment Promote Cooperation: An Interdependence Theoretical PerspectiveDaniel Balliet and Paul A. M. Van LangeChapter 4: Regulating the Regulation: Norms About PunishmentPontus Strimling and Kimmo ErikssonChapter 5: For the Common Good? The Use of Sanctions in Social DilemmasEric van Dijk, Laetitia B. Mulder, and Erik W. de KwaadstenietPART 2: THE ORGANZATION OF REWARD AND PUNISHMENTChapter 6: Promoting Cooperation: The Distribution of Reward and Punishment PowerDaniele Nosenzo and Martin R. SeftonChapter 7: Broadening the Motivation to Cooperate: Revisiting the Role of Sanctions inSocial DilemmasXiao-Ping Chen, Carolyn T. Dang, and Fong Keng-HighbergerChapter 8: Leadership, Reward and Punishment in Sequential Public Goods ExperimentsMatthias Sutter and M. Fernanda RivasPART 3: THE FUNCTIONS OF REWARD AND PUNISHMENT IN SOCIETYChapter 9: Social Decision-Making in Childhood and AdolescenceEveline A. Crone, Geert-Jan Will, Sandy Overgauw, and Berna GürogluChapter 10: Why Sanction? Functional Causes of Punishment and RewardPat Barclay and Toko KiyonariChapter 11: Self-Governance Through Altruistic PunishmentNikos NikiforakisChapter 12: Beyond Kin: Cooperation in a Tribal SocietyPierre Lienard

About the Author :
Paul Van Lange is Professor and Chair in Social Interaction and Interdependence, Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, VU University, Amsterdam. Bettina Rockenbach is Professor of Experimental and Behavioral Economics, University of Cologne. Toshio Yamagishi is Professor of Behavioral Science, Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University, Japan.

Review :
"Although the book investigates these issues in a broad set of contexts, one can find specific references to common pool resource management throughout the volume, especially to the empirical experimental work on the topic. While reading the book, I particularly enjoyed two chapters, both of which may also be of specific interest for scholars working on the commons. In summary, the book serves as a general introduction to the reward and punishment literature in social dilemma research. I strongly recommend the book to scholars of the commons who are planning to conduct social science experiments on the topic." --Jens Rommel, International Journal of the Commons