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Related Concept Videos

Punishment01:27

Punishment

Negative reinforcement and punishment are often confused but serve distinct functions in behavior modification. Reinforcement, whether positive or negative, increases the likelihood of a desired behavior, while punishment decreases it.
Punishment can be positive or negative. Positive punishment involves adding an undesirable stimulus, such as scolding, to decrease a behavior. Negative punishment involves removing a desirable stimulus, such as taking away a favorite toy, to decrease behavior.
Milgram's Obedience to Authority02:20

Milgram's Obedience to Authority

Obedience to authority is classically demonstrated in a more famous series of social psychology experiments performed by Stanley Milgram. He was a social psychology professor at Yale who was influenced by the trial of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal. Eichmann’s defense for the atrocities he committed was that he was “just following orders.”
Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development01:19

Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

Kohlberg's theory of moral development uses the Heinz dilemma — a thought experiment in which a man, Heinz, must decide whether to steal an unaffordable drug to save his dying wife — to illustrate the evolution of moral reasoning. This framework, divided into three levels with two stages, highlights how individuals' understanding of right and wrong becomes increasingly complex.
Pre-Conventional Level
At the pre-conventional level, morality is primarily driven by personal consequences. In Stage...
Self-Discrepancy Theory02:45

Self-Discrepancy Theory

One influential perspective on what motivates people's behavior is detailed in Tory Higgin's self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987). He proposed that people hold disagreeing internal representations of themselves that lead to different emotional states.
The Stanford Prison Experiment03:20

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The famous and controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues at Stanford University, demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts.
Motivational Bias01:25

Motivational Bias

Cognitive bias results from limitations in thinking and information processing, leading to systematic errors in judgment. Conversely, motivational bias stems from personal desires or emotions, causing distortions in perception to align with self-interest. Motivational bias influences how individuals perceive and attribute causes to events, often shaped by personal needs, goals, and self-esteem preservation. This bias can distort judgment, leading to inaccurate assessments of success, failure,...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 21, 2026

A Conflict Model of Reward-seeking Behavior in Male Rats
06:11

A Conflict Model of Reward-seeking Behavior in Male Rats

Published on: February 20, 2019

Choosy moral punishers.

Christine Clavien1, Colby J Tanner, Fabrice Clément

  • 1Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. christine.clavien@unil.ch

Plos One
|June 22, 2012
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Human morality is not universal; the tendency to punish norm violators differs based on career paths. Future teachers punished misconduct, while future police and students did not, highlighting context-specific social norm enforcement.

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Area of Science:

  • Social Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics
  • Moral Psychology

Background:

  • Cooperation among unrelated individuals is stabilized by punishing social misconduct.
  • A universal human disposition to punish norm violators, termed 'pure aversion to social betrayal,' is often assumed.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the propensity to punish moral norm violators varies across different socio-professional trajectories.
  • To challenge the hypothesis of a universal disposition to punish social misconduct.

Main Methods:

  • An anonymous, real-life experiment involving a music competition scenario.
  • Participants included future teachers, future police officers, and high school students.
  • Participants voted on a talented violinist accused of misconduct towards peers.

Main Results:

  • Future teachers voted against the violinist after learning of her misconduct.
  • Future police officers and high school students did not punish the violinist.
  • Punishment of norm violators varied significantly based on participants' career trajectories.

Conclusions:

  • The propensity to punish social norm violators is not solely explained by an aversion to social betrayal.
  • Context specificity, familiarity, social category relevance, and strategic advantage influence normative behavior and norm enforcement.