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The punishment that sustains cooperation is often coordinated and costly
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 January 2012
Abstract
Experiments are not models of cooperation; instead, they demonstrate the presence of the ethical and other-regarding predispositions that often motivate cooperation and the punishment of free-riders. Experimental behavior predicts subjects' cooperation in the field. Ethnographic studies in small-scale societies without formal coercive institutions demonstrate that disciplining defectors is both essential to cooperation and often costly to the punisher.
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The punishment that sustains cooperation is often coordinated and costly
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