Summary 3

Ball P. When does punishment work?. Nature [Internet]. 2009 Sept 28 [cited 2009 Sept 17]. Available from: http://www.nature.com.mutex.gmu.edu/news/2009/090928/full/news.2009.955.html

A paper written in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, evaluating the results of a study done by Yi Tao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Zoology in Beijing, attempts to explain why certain people respond differently to situations in which punishment is a threat. Students were given a version of the game commonly called the prisoner’s dilemma. In the common version of this game, a person can either cooperate or defect; the ability to punish was added to test how it affects cooperation.
Most people in democratic societies responded with eventual cooperation. The United States and China did not. While the US results are somewhat less reliable, the Chinese results seem to be solid. In this computer game, Chinese are more likely to punish than cooperate…even if this hurts themselves in the end. Researchers believe that the way that the Chinese interact, especially during business activities, explains this. Chinese business is done in a slow, deliberate manner called guanxi. It is based on a relationship slowly cultivated based on “friendship, obligation, and guilt” that continues until both parties are satisfied. There is no one on one interaction in the prisoner’s dilemma game and so no trust forms. Without trust, in the Chinese culture, there is no reason to cooperate. This study seems to prove only that societal norms affect behavior at least as much as biology.