How Punishment Shapes Social Norms
Punishment is a tool used to uphold social norms, aiming to correct unacceptable behavior. But sometimes, the intended message backfires. When observers see punishment as too severe, they might question the motives of those in authority, according to a study from MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research.
Researchers led by Rebecca Saxe and graduate student Setayesh Radkani have developed a computational model to unravel how individuals interpret punishment. Their work, published in the journal PNAS, dives into the mental processes that shape our understanding of justice and authority.
The model suggests that how people interpret punishment is influenced by their prior beliefs. For instance, a toddler being sent to timeout might see the punishment differently than their parent. While a parent might aim to teach a lesson, the child might see the punishment as unfair if they believed their actions were justified.
In their experiments, Radkani created imaginary scenarios in which authorities punished individuals for fictitious transgressions. Participants had to assess the justice-oriented motives of the authority, along with the severity and bias of the punishment. Through this setup, the researchers explored how prior beliefs about authority and wrongdoing affect people's interpretations of punishment.
The study reveals that even with shared evidence, differing initial beliefs lead to divergent conclusions. This results in a polarization effect, where groups with opposing views on authority only reinforce their stances.
The research has implications for how society communicates social norms. Saxe suggests that for punishment to be perceived as just, it should be portrayed as motivated by care for long-term outcomes and proportional to the violation. However, she acknowledges that ingrained beliefs can still skew perceptions.