Opinion – Reinaldo José Lopes: Antisocial punishment

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The reader may have noticed that we can learn a lot about human nature when we put a bunch of strangers to participate in a game for money. No, I don’t mean “reality shows”, but what goes on inside the social psychology and behavioral economics labs around the world.

OK, the prizes offered by this type of lab don’t even come close to those billed by a BBB winner, but money is money, even if it’s little. One of the most common forms of the little science games I’m referring to is a kind of joint investment, with carefully thought-out rules to foment bullshit.

Imagine that, at the beginning, each of the participants receives four R$5 bills to invest in a common fund. At each round, the funds invested earn, say, 10% interest, which is shared equally among all participants. It would be logical for everyone to invest all their resources in the endeavor, right?

Only that, slutty of slutties, the rules say that the participants are not obliged to invest even a penny. And that means that, from a strictly rational point of view, it’s worth letting everyone else put money in the common fund and sitting idly by while the dividends fall into your account, without touching your $5 bills.

Machiavellian, however, is the mind of behavioral scientists. Most versions of this type of game include a punishment mode: you can spend part of your money to punish other participants, taking resources from them.

In most developed countries, especially those with decently structured civil societies and relatively low inequality, where people tend to rely on justice and other institutions, so-called pro-social punishment is more common. That is, the group spends money to punish those who contribute little.

In countries with high rates of inequality and corruption, however, antisocial punishment emerges: those who are “too generous” end up being punished by others. What do you mean you have the nerve to trust everyone and on top of that to make people understand that we are cheap?

Antisocial punishment doesn’t have to involve money, of course. It was her that I immediately thought of when I saw the less than edifying reactions of some people to the end of mandatory protective masks against Covid-19 in São Paulo and other parts of the country.

With fully justified caution, many people said they will continue to wear masks indoors, at least until the pandemic situation improves for good. The attitude of those who call masks a “muzzle” and “gag”, however, was the purest cream of antisocial punishment: they began to curse those who preferred to maintain respiratory protection.

Pandemic fatigue is the most understandable thing in the world. However, that doesn’t change the fact that this kind of reaction is yet another indication that, unfortunately, we are part of the second type of society—those that are corroded from within by the lack of trust among their members. For those who have ears to listen, the last two years have brought many bitter lessons, but it is possible to summarize almost all of them in one: either we get out of this collectively, or we will never get out.

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