The effects of contemporaneous peer punishment on cooperation with the future

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Authors

We use a laboratory version of the intergenerational goods game (IGG) to investigate whether peer punishment facilitates the successful provision of multigenerational public goods. In our experiment, groups (generations) decide sequentially about the provision of a multigenerational public good through the voluntary contributions of their members. Successful provision requires that contributions meet a threshold and exclusively benefits members of future generations. Provision costs are borne only by the current generation. We compare a baseline condition without a punishment institution to a treatment condition where peer punishment can be inflicted exclusively on members of the same generation but not on members of past or future generations. We find that without punishment the likelihood of reaching the contribution threshold is low and that making punishment available within a generation is partially successful in sustaining cooperation in a succession of multiple generations.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1815
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
ISSN2041-1723
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.12.2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Johannes Jarke, Rebecca McDonald, Timo Goeschl, and seminar and conference participants at Berlin, Birmingham, Gothenburg, Hamburg, London, and Odense for their useful comments. A generous research grant from the Innovation Fund FRONTIER of Heidelberg University (ZUK 49/2 5.2.141) is gratefully acknowledged. The open access fee was generously paid by the University of Birmingham.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).

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