Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/161122 
Year of Publication: 
2017
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 10499
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
The ability to punish free-riders can increase the provision of public goods. However, sometimes the benefit of increased public good provision is outweighed by the costs of punishments. One reason a group may punish to the point that net welfare is reduced is that punishment can express anger about free-riding. If this is the case, then tools that regulate emotions could decrease the use of punishments while keeping welfare high, possibly depending on pre-existing levels of aggression. In this lab experiment, we find that adopting an objective attitude (Objective), through a form of emotion regulation called cognitive reappraisal, decreases the use of punishments and makes a statistically insignificant improvement to both net earnings and self-reported emotions compared to a control condition (Natural). Although the interaction between the emotion regulation treatment and level of aggression is not significant, only low aggression types reduce their punishments; the results are of the same direction but statistically insignificant for high aggression types. Overall, our findings suggest that pairing emotion regulation with punishments can decrease the use of punishments without harming monetary and mental welfare.
Subjects: 
public goods
punishment
emotions
JEL: 
C72
C91
C92
D7
H41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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