Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Asymmetries in punishment propensity may drive the civilizing process

Nature Human Behaviour volume 2, pages 148–155 (2018)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Norms about hygiene and violence have both shown a tendency to become increasingly strict, in the sense that the handling of bodily fluids and the use of violence have become increasingly restricted. The generality of this directional change across a large number of societies has not been captured by previous explanations. We propose an explanation of the directional change that is based on the aggregation of everyday interactions. This theory posits that directional norm change can come about if there is an asymmetry in punishment propensity between the people who prefer stricter norms and those who prefer looser norms. Asymmetry in punishment can arise from underlying asymmetry in the threat perceived, where a stricter-than-preferred behaviour is perceived as inherently less threatening than a looser one. We demonstrate the logic of the theory using a formal model and test some of its assumptions through survey experiments.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Simulations of norm change from looser to stricter behaviours.
Fig. 2: Propensity to punish non-preferred behaviour.
Fig. 3: Propensity to punish, and feelings of threat from non-preferred behaviour.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Elias, N. The Civilizing Process: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Investigations (Blackwell, Oxford, 2000).

  2. Duerr, H. P. Der Mythos vom Zivilisationsprozeß Band 1–4 (Suhrkamp, Frankfurt-am-Main, 1988, 1994, 1995 and 1997).

  3. Elias, N. Essays II: On Civilising Processes, State Formation and National Identity Vol. 15 (eds Kilminster, R. & Mennell, S.) (UCD Press, Dublin, 2008).

  4. Mennell, S. & Goudsblom, J. Civilizing processes—myth or reality? A comment on Duerr’s critique of Elias. Comp. Stud. Soc. Hist. 39, 729–733 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Elias, N. Civilization and violence: on the state monopoly of physical violence and its infringements. Telos 1982, 134–154 (1982).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Eisner, M. Modernization, self‐control and lethal violence. The long‐term dynamics of European homicide rates in theoretical perspective. Br. J. Criminol. 41, 618–638 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Klingenstein, S., Hitchcock, T. & DeDeo, S. The civilizing process in London’s Old Bailey. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 111, 9419–9424 (2014).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  8. Pinker, S. The Better Angels of our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and its Causes (Penguin, London, 2011).

  9. Taylor, C. A., Hamvas, L., Rice, J., Newman, D. L. & DeJong, W. Perceived social norms, expectations, and attitudes toward corporal punishment among an urban community sample of parents. J. Urban Health 88, 254–269 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  10. Eriksson, K., Strimling, P. & Coultas, J. C. Bidirectional associations between descriptive and injunctive norms. Organ. Behav. Human. Decis. Process. 129, 59–69 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ikegami, E. The Taming of the Samurai. Honorific Individualism and the Making of Modern Japan (Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1995).

  12. Jarrick, A. & Söderberg, J. Spontaneous processes of civilization. The Swedish case. Ethnol. Eur. 23, 5–26 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Pah, A. R. et al. Economic insecurity and the rise in gun violence at US schools. Nat. Hum. Behav. 1, 0040 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Suri, J. AHR forum the rise and fall of an international counterculture, 1960–1975. Am. Hist. Rev. 114, 45–68 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Elias, N. The Germans: Power Struggles and the Development of Habitus in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Polity Press, Cambridge, 1996).

  16. Cieri, R. L., Churchill, S. E., Franciscus, R. G., Tan, J. & Hare, B. Craniofacial feminization, social tolerance, and the origins of behavioral modernity. Curr. Anthropol. 55, 419–443 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Brauer, M. & Chekroun, P. The relationship between perceived violation of social norms and social control: situational factors influencing the reaction to deviance. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 35, 1519–1539 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Jost, J. T., Banaji, M. R. & Nosek, B. A. A decade of system justification theory: accumulated evidence of conscious and unconscious bolstering of the status quo. Polit. Psychol. 25, 881–919 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Eriksson, K., Andersson, P. A. & Strimling, P. Moderators of the disapproval of peer punishment. Group Process. Inter. Relat. 19, 152–168 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Bloom, P. How do morals change? Nature 464, 490–490 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Jarrick, A. & Söderberg, J. Människovärdet och Makten: Om Civiliseringsprocessen i Stockholm 1600–1850 (Stockholmia, Stockholm, 1994).

  22. Funk, J. B., Baldacci, H. B., Pasold, T. & Baumgardner, J. Violence exposure in real-life, video games, television, movies, and the internet: is there desensitization? J. Adolesc. 27, 23–39 (2004).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Helman, C. G. “Feed a cold, starve a fever”—folk models of infection in an English suburban community, and their relation to medical treatment. Cult. Med. Psychiatry 2, 107–137 (1978).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Wilcock, A., Pun, M., Khanona, J. & Aung, M. Consumer attitudes, knowledge and behaviour: a review of food safety issues. Trends Food Sci. Technol. 15, 56–66 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Wright, R. Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny (Vintage, New York, NY, 2001).

  26. Zolotor, A. J. & Puzia, M. E. Bans against corporal punishment: a systematic review of the laws, changes in attitudes and behaviours. Child. Abus. Rev. 19, 229–247 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Dunning, E. & Hughes, J. Norbert Elias and Modern Sociology: Knowledge, Interdependence, Power, Process (Bloomsbury, London, 2012).

  28. Martijn, C., Tenbült, P., Merckelbach, H., Dreezens, E. & de Vries, N. K. Getting a grip on ourselves: challenging expectancies about loss of energy after self-control. Social. Cogn. 20, 441–460 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Wouters, C. Informalization: Manners and Emotions Since 1890 (Sage, London, 2007).

  30. Collins, R. Four theories of informalization and how to test them. Hum. Fig. 3, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.11217607.0003.207 (2014).

  31. Wouters, C. Sex and Manners: Female Emancipation in the West 1890–2000 (Sage, London, 2004).

  32. Exline, J. J. & Lobel, M. The perils of outperformance: sensitivity about being the target of a threatening upward comparison. Psychol. Bull. 125, 307–337 (1999).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Fisher, J. D., Nadler, A. & Whitcher-Alagna, S. Recipient reactions to aid. Psychol. Bull. 91, 27–54 (1982).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Monin, B., Sawyer, P. J. & Marquez, M. J. The rejection of moral rebels: resenting those who do the right thing. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 95, 76–93 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Parks, C. D. & Stone, A. B. The desire to expel unselfish members from the group. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 99, 303–310 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Haidt, J. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (Vintage, New York, NY, 2012).

  37. Inglehart, R. Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies Vol. 19 (Princeton Univ. Press, Princeton, NJ, 1997).

  38. Nisbett, R. E. & Cohen, D. Culture of Honor: The Psychology of Violence in the South (Westview Press, Boulder, CO, 1996).

  39. Schnall, S., Haidt, J., Clore, G. L. & Jordan, A. H. Disgust as embodied moral judgment. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 34, 1096–1109 (2008).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  40. Yamagishi, T. et al. The private rejection of unfair offers and emotional commitment. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 11520–11523 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  41. Cannon, W. B. Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear, and Rage (Appleton–Century–Crofts, New York, NY, 1929).

  42. Jansen, A., Nguyen, X., Karpitsky, V., Mettenleiter, M. & Loewy, A. D. Central command neurons of the sympathetic nervous system: basis of the fight-or-flight response. Science 270, 644–646 (1995).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Bolles, R. C. & Fanselow, M. S. A perceptual–defensive–recuperative model of fear and pain. Behav. Brain Sci. 3, 291–301 (1980).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Curtis, V. & Biran, A. Dirt, disgust, and disease: is hygiene in our genes? Pers. Biol. Med. 44, 17–31 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. Fehr, E. & Gächter, S. Cooperation and punishment in public goods experiments. Am. Econ. Rev. 90, 980–994 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  46. Perry, D. G. & Perry, L. C. in Learning in Children: Progress in Cognitive Development Research (eds Bisanz, J., Bisanz, G. L. & Kail, R.) 105–136 (Springer, New York, NY, 1983).

  47. Young, H. P. The evolution of conventions. Econometrica 61, 57–84 (1993).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. Culture and the Evolutionary Process (Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1985).

  49. Azar, O. H. What sustains social norms and how they evolve? The case of tipping. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 54, 49–64 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  50. Azar, O. H. Evolution of social norms with heterogeneous preferences: a general model and an application to the academic review process. J. Econ. Behav. Organ. 65, 420–435 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Strimling, P., Enquist, M. & Eriksson, K. Repeated learning makes cultural evolution unique. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106, 13870–13874 (2009).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  52. Eriksson, K., Cownden, D., Ehn, M. & Strimling, P. ‘Altruistic’ and ‘antisocial’ punishers are one and the same. Rev. Behav. Econ. 1, 209–221 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Eriksson, K. & Strimling, P. Injunctive versus functional inferences from descriptive norms: comment on Gelfand and Harrington. J. Cross-Cult. Psychol. 46, 1330–1332 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  54. Hayes, A. F. Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach (Guilford Press, New York, NY, 2013).

  55. Freeman, M. C. et al. Systematic review: Hygiene and health: systematic review of handwashing practices worldwide and update of health effects. Trop. Med. Int. Health 19, 906–916 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Green, P. & Ward, T. The transformation of violence in Iraq. Br. J. Criminol. 49, 609–627 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation grant 2016.0167 and 2015.0005 and the Professor Roy Weir Career Development Fellowship. No funder had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm, Sweden

    Pontus Strimling

  2. Centre for the Study of Cultural Evolution, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Pontus Strimling, Mícheál de Barra & Kimmo Eriksson

  3. Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    Mícheál de Barra

  4. School of Education, Culture and Communication, Mälardalen University, Mälardalen, Sweden

    Kimmo Eriksson

Authors
  1. Pontus Strimling
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mícheál de Barra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Kimmo Eriksson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.d.B. and P.S. designed the study and collected the data. All authors analysed the data. P.S. and K.E. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pontus Strimling.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Results.

Life Sciences Reporting Summary

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Strimling, P., de Barra, M. & Eriksson, K. Asymmetries in punishment propensity may drive the civilizing process. Nat Hum Behav 2, 148–155 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0278-z

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0278-z

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing