Low-cost punishment of norm violators is a uniquely human trait.

Evidence

The authors’ critique of our stress on altruistic punishment is not well founded. As Bingham (1999) and Boyd et al. (2010) have stressed, the ability of inflicting low-cost punishment on violators of social norms is the very defining feature of our species, and has no counterpart in other species. Of course, lethal punishment is rare, but it is universal in hunter-gather societies (Boehm 1999; 2011; Wiessner 2005). Moreover, even ostracism and shunning involve strictly positive costs for those who participate. It is for this reason that other species do not include shunning and ostracism in their repertoire of behaviors. — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 424

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s Big God / partner-choice framework: both altruistic punishment and costly signaling (shunning has positive costs) bear on how religious solidarity is enforced. — connects to: People punish norm violations at personal cost even without direct harm — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 147; Even unaffected bystanders punish norm violations at personal cost. — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 2; Social norm enforcement may be a defining trait of humanity. — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 4 (+6 more)

Related

• People punish norm violations at personal cost even without direct harm (similarity 0.84)
• Costly norm enforcement by unaffected bystanders reveals strong reciprocity. (similarity 0.84)
• Social norm enforcement may be a defining trait of humanity. (similarity 0.83)
• Even unaffected bystanders punish norm violations at personal cost. (similarity 0.82)
• People punish free-riders partly to correct inequality, not only to enforce cooperation. (similarity 0.82)
• Moralistic punishment of defectors is itself a costly reputational signal. (similarity 0.81)
• Society punishes impropriety more harshly than inhumanity (similarity 0.80)
• People spend their own money to punish and reward strangers with no future benefit. (similarity 0.80)
• Directly harmed victims punish more strongly than unaffected third parties. (similarity 0.80)
• Harm prohibitions are as central to morality as fairness (similarity 0.79)
• Multiple third-party punishers can make norm violations unprofitable, acting as strong norm enforcers. (similarity 0.79)
• Impartial third parties punish norm violators at personal cost. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Impartial third parties punish norm violators at personal cost. #corroborates (0.95) — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 29
• Even unaffected bystanders punish norm violations at personal cost. #corroborates (0.90) — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 2
• People punish norm violations at personal cost even without direct harm #corroborates (0.85) — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 147
• Social norm enforcement may be a defining trait of humanity. #expands (0.85) — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 4
• An impartial third party who punishes at personal cost demonstrates strong reciprocity. #expands (0.85) — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 13
• Fairness-based morality is uniquely human despite similar selective conditions in animals. #corroborates (0.80) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 309
• Costly norm enforcement by unaffected bystanders reveals strong reciprocity. #expands (0.80) — Ernst Fehr, Third-Party Punishment and Social Norms, 2
• The kindness-rewarded, greed-punished tale recur in nearly every human culture independently #exemplifies (0.75) — , A Year of World Stories, 9258
• Humans hold systematic moral intuitions about proportionate sharing, helping, and punishment. #expands (0.70) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 6