Overall Research Project Description When you see someone behaving selfishly or unfairly towards others, and you have the power to do something about it, what do you do? Do you punish the wrongdoer? Do you help the victims? Or, do you do a combination of both (punish wrongdoer and help victims)? Many people say they will do both - punish a wrongdoer and help a victim(s) - if and when they have unlimited resources and when responding to the unfairness does not come with a cost. However, the story becomes much more complicated when people (a) have limited resources and (b) when responding to unfairness involves an altruistic component (i.e., responding comes at a cost to the self, typically in the form of resources).
For this project, we will be examining the motivations underlying people's responses to unfair behavior in groups. My own previous work on this topic has suggested that a desire for retribution (giving someone "their just deserts"), social approval, and deterrence are all important motivations that predict whether someone will punish a wrongdoer and/or help a victim, even at a cost to one's own resources. This research project will be a replication and extension of that work by expanding the consideration of motivations predicting punishment/helping behavior, such as punishing/helping in order to show one's "strength" or power, humiliate a wrongdoer, etc. The study will take place in-person in a research lab in the department of psychology.