This article focuses on the connection between punishment and norms. Experimental studies in economics assume that transgression of norms of justice and equity is the cause of the application of punishment. While such a connection is evident, there are reasons to believe that external validity of such inference may be undermined due to certain experimental artefacts. These experimental artefacts refer to two sets of problems linked to ecological validity: first, the "normative irrelevance" of punishment, that is, that participants in experimental economic games use the option of punishment for reasons unrelated to the transgression of norms; and second, the illegitimacy of punishment, as a result of the lack of adequate procedures to the allocation of roles and normative ambiguity. I conclude with recommendations about how to tackle these problems.
Keywords:
punishment, social norms, ecological validity, legitimacy, experimental economics
Senci, M. (2020). Punishment and social norms. On the ecological validity of punishment in experimental economics, part I. Cinta De Moebio. Revista De Epistemología De Ciencias Sociales, (66), 321–332. Retrieved from https://enfoqueseducacionales.uchile.cl/index.php/CDM/article/view/55913