Research on morality has increased rapidly over the past 10 years. At the center of this
research are moral judgments—evaluative judgments that a perceiver makes in response to …

What is social pressure, and how could it be adaptive to conform to others' expectations?
Existing accounts highlight the importance of reputation and social sanctions. Yet, conformist …

Norms permeate human life. Most of people's activities can be characterized by rules about
what is appropriate, allowed, required, or forbidden—rules that are crucial in making people …

Humans are outstanding in their ability to cooperate with unrelated individuals, and
punishment–paying a cost to harm others–is thought to be a key supporting mechanism …

Many social scientists believe humans possess an evolved motivation to punish violations of
norms—including norm violations that do not harm them directly. However, most empirical …

Reward for altruism and punishment for selfishness are crucial components for the
maintenance of society. Past studies have provided strong evidence that people are willing …

In six studies, we consistently observed costly third-party punishment (3PP) to decrease
under ambiguity of the norm violation. Our research suggests that, under ambiguity, some …

Punishment aims to deter individuals' selfish behaviors, but it can occasionally backfire.
Some scholars have proposed promoting prosocial behaviors using punishment that …

This chapter describes how context motivates moral behavior by way of social norms. Norms
are guides to action. They constrain an individual's options in a given context to act in ways …

Punishment can reform uncooperative behavior and hence could have contributed to
humans' ability to live in large-scale societies. Punishment by unaffected third parties has …