Empathic Concern for Violators Modulates Victims' Evaluation of Third-Party Punishment Outcomes: Behavioral and EEG...

When fairness conflicts with empathy-induced altruism, victims often reduce punishment to protect violators' welfare. Whether this influence extends to outcome evaluations when punishment is implemented by third parties remains unclear. We combined an adapted Third-Party Dictator Game with electroencephalography (EEG) to address this. Participants received unfair allocations from violators and evaluated third-party punishment (TPP) outcomes. Empathic concern was induced by portraying violators as being in need. Behaviorally, victims in the empathy (vs. non-empathy) condition rated no-punishment and partial-punishment outcomes as more appropriate but complete-punishment outcomes as less appropriate. Partial-punishment outcomes received the highest ratings in the empathy condition, reflecting a balance between protecting violators' welfare and restoring fairness. Neurally, partial-punishment outcomes induced smaller P2 amplitudes in the empathy (vs. non-empathy) condition, suggesting lower motivational salience because they better matched victims' goals. No-punishment outcomes induced larger LPP amplitudes in the empathy (vs. non-empathy) condition, reflecting sustained processing of their affective and motivational significance. Parietal alpha suppression was weaker in the empathy (vs. non-empathy) condition, indicating reduced sustained attention to TPP outcomes. Together, these findings suggest that empathic concern shapes victims' evaluations of third-party norm-enforcement outcomes, extending its influence beyond contexts in which the empathizing individual also implements punishment.