Asymmetries in punishment propensity may drive the civilizing process

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

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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 * Institute for Future Studies, Stockholm, Sweden Pontus Strimling * Centre for the Study of Cultural

Evolution, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden Pontus Strimling, Mícheál de Barra & Kimmo Eriksson * Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

Mícheál de Barra * School of Education, Culture and Communication, Mälardalen University, Mälardalen, Sweden Kimmo Eriksson Authors * Pontus Strimling View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Mícheál de Barra View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Kimmo Eriksson View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 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

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& 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: 06 March 2017 * Accepted: 04 December 2017 * Published: 22 January 2018 * Issue Date: February 2018 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0278-z SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you

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