Research On The Mechanism Of Cognitive Control In Social Punishment

Social punishment refers to the action taken by individuals to penalize norm violations during social interactions,often encompassing second-party and third-party punishment.Second-party punishment occurs when individuals punish norm-violating behavior as direct victims,while third-party punishment occurs when they do so as bystanders.These forms of punishment are critical mechanisms for maintaining social order and promoting cooperative behavior among group members.Individuals frequently experience conflicts when making decisions related to social punishment,such as conflicts between their desire to uphold social fairness norms and their selfish motives.To resolve these conflicts,individuals need to rely on cognitive control to process cognitive conflicts and make rational decisions.Previous research has confirmed the impact of cognitive control on social punishment;however,there is still controversy over its specific role.This may be due to the use of nonuniform research paradigms in previous studies.People’s punishment psychology mechanisms may differ under gaming or situational contexts,and previous research overlooked group and individual differences.Some research suggests that groups showing greater attention to fair norms exhibit more social punishment behavior,while the roles of different subcomponents of cognitive control vary,and there are individual differences in their cognitive control ability and self-control traits.This study aims to examine the impact of cognitive control on social punishment using a unified research paradigm,taking into account group differences in social value orientations and individual differences in cognitive control subcomponent ability and self-control traits.Specifically,the study employed a unified game paradigm across three studies using college students as research subjects.The study investigated the role of cognitive control in social punishment under second-party and third-party punishment perspectives,whether the violation behavior was intentional or unintentional,and whether punishment required a cost.Moreover,the study considered the moderating role of group differences in social value orientations on the relationship between cognitive control and social punishment,as well as the relationship between cognitive control subcomponent ability and self-control traits and social punishment.In the first study,scenarios were differentiated based on whether the social punishment required a cost and whether the allocation intention was intentional or unintentional under the second-party and third-party perspectives.The study manipulated cognitive control levels through a Stroop task in a 2(self-depletion:high depletion/low depletion)×2(intention:intentional/unintentional)mixed experimental design.Results showed that the level of punishment under intentional unfair conditions was significantly higher than that under unintentional conditions,regardless of the punishment perspective and whether there was a cost.Moreover,in the third-party perspective with a cost scenario,the level of punishment by the high depletion group was lower than that by the low depletion group,but this result only reached marginal significance.Cognitive control may play a role in inhibiting selfish motives.The second study examined the role of cognitive control in social punishment under the second-party and third-party perspectives in groups with different social value orientations.The study differentiated groups into selfish and fair-oriented based on passive choice involving real self-interest in a dictator game,using a 2(trait:selfish orientation/fair orientation)×2(self-depletion:high depletion/low depletion)×2(intention:intentional/unintentional)three-factor mixed design.Results showed that,under the second-party punishment perspective with a cost,the level of social punishment in the selfish orientation group was significantly lower than that in the fair orientation group.Additionally,under the third-party punishment perspective with an intentional unfair condition with a cost,the level of punishment by the high depletion group in the selfish orientation was significantly lower than that by the low depletion group,and cognitive control may have played a role in inhibiting selfish motives.The third study examined the relationship between cognitive control subcomponent ability and self-control traits and social punishment through correlation research and behavioral experimentation under the second-party and third-party punishment perspectives,distinguishing between situations with and without cost and situations that are intentional and unintentional.The study utilized the Digit Span task,N-back task,Stop Signal task,Stroop task,and Delay Discounting task to measure cognitive control subcomponent,and the Self-Control Scale to measure self-control traits.Results showed that better inhibitory control(hot system)ability was associated with lower levels of punishment when facing an unintentional unfair condition under the third-party perspective in a situation with a cost.Under the same situation,higher self-control traits were associated with higher levels of punishment in the second-party intentional unfair condition.Under a no-cost situation,better working memory ability was linked to higher levels of punishment in the second-party intentional unfair condition and third-party intentional unfair condition.Overall,our research found that the specific role of cognitive control in social punishment may differ in different punishment scenarios and groups with different social value orientations.When not distinguishing between groups,cognitive depletion did not significantly affect social punishment.After distinguishing between groups,cognitive control played a different role in inhibiting selfish motives under the thirdparty intentional unfair condition in the selfish-oriented group.In addition,subcomponents of cognitive control have distinct roles in social punishment,and our results reveal that working memory mainly relates to the integration of information,while inhibitory control and self-control traits mainly relate to regulating conflicts.Our research findings contribute to improving the social punishment mechanism model and can guide different groups or individuals to carry out reasonable punishment suitable for violative behavior,promoting a more fair and harmonious society at a practical level.