Understanding the Dark Side of Costly Punishment: The Impact of Individual Differences in Everyday Sadism and Existential Threat

European Journal of Personality

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 2015, Pages 498-505

  Pfattheicher, Stefan ^a   Schindler, Simon ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ULM   (Germany)

^b UNIVERSITY OF KASSEL   (Germany)

Author keywords

Antisocial punishment; Dominance; Mortality salience; Sadism; Social dilemma

Indexed keywords

EID: 84938747836     PISSN: 08902070     EISSN: 10990984     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/per.2003     Document Type: Article

References (75)

1. Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
2. Arndt, J., Greenberg, J., & Cook, A. (2002). Mortality salience and the spreading activation of worldview-relevant constructs: Exploring the cognitive architecture of terror management. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 307-324.
3. Balliet, D., Mulder, L. B., & van Lange, P. A. (2011). Reward, punishment, and cooperation: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 594-615.
4. Barclay, P. (2006). Reputational benefits for altruistic punishment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 27, 325-344.
5. Baumeister, R. F., Bushman, B. J., & Campbell, W. K. (2000). Self-esteem, narcissism, and aggression. Does violence result from low self-esteem or from threatened egotism? Current Directions in Psychological Science, 9, 26-29.
6. Baumeister, R. F., & Campbell, W. K. (1999). The intrinsic appeal of evil: Sadism, sensational thrills, and threatened egotism. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3, 210-221.
7. Baumeister, R. F., Smart, L., & Boden, J. M. (1996). Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: The dark side of high self-esteem. Psychological Review, 103, 5-33.
8. Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2004). Four roots of evil. In A. G. Miller (Ed.), The social psychology of good and evil (pp. 85-101). New York: The Guilford Press.
9. Bernhard, H., Fischbacher, U., & Fehr, E. (2006). Parochial altruism in humans. Nature, 442, 912-915.
10. Brown, R. P., & Zeigler-Hill, V. (2004). Narcissism and the non-equivalence of self-esteem measures: A matter of dominance? Journal of Research in Personality, 38, 585-592.
11. Buckels, E. E., Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2013). Behavioral confirmation of everyday sadism. Psychological Science, 24, 2201-2209.
12. Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P. D., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Trolls just want to have fun. Personality and Individual Differences, 67, 97-102.
13. Burke, B. L., Martens, A., & Faucher, E. H. (2010). Two decades of terror management theory: A meta-analysis of mortality salience research. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 14, 155-195.
14. Bushman, B. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (1998). Threatened egotism, narcissism, self-esteem, and direct and displaced aggression: Does self-love or self-hate lead to violence? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 219-229.
15. Carré, J. M., & Mehta, P. H. (2011). Importance of considering testosterone-cortisol interactions in predicting human aggression and dominance. Aggressive Behavior, 37, 1-3.
16. Chabrol, H., Melioli, T., Van Leeuwen, N., Rodgers, R., & Goutaudier, N. (2015). The Dark Tetrad: Identifying personality profiles in high-school students. Personality and Individual Differences, 83, 97-101.
17. Chabrol, H., Van Leeuwen, N., Rodgers, R., & Séjourné, N. (2009). Contributions of psychopathic, narcissistic, Machiavellian, and sadistic personality traits to juvenile delinquency. Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 734-739.
18. Cooke, D. J. (2001). Psychopathy, sadism and serial killing. In A. Raine & J. Sanmartín (Eds.), Violence and psychopathy (pp. 123-137). New York: Springer.
19. Crocker, J., Lee, S. J., & Park, L. E. (2004). The pursuit of self-esteem: Implications for good and evil. In A. G. Miller (Ed.), The social psychology of good and evil (pp. 271-302). New York: The Guilford Press.
20. Crocker, J., & Park, L. E. (2004). The costly pursuit of self-esteem. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 392-414.
21. Dietz, P. E., Hazelwood, R. R., & Warren, J. (1990). The sexually sadistic criminal and his offenses. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, 18, 163-178.
22. Dreber, A., & Rand, D. G. (2012). Retaliation and antisocial punishment are overlooked in many theoretical models as well as behavioral experiments. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 24-24.
23. Fehr, E., & Fischbacher, U. (2003). The nature of human altruism. Nature, 425, 785-791.
24. Fehr, E., & Gächter, S. (2002). Altruistic punishment in humans. Nature, 415, 137-140.
25. Fein, S., & Spencer, S. J. (1997). Prejudice as self-image maintenance: Affirming the self through derogating others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 31-44.
26. Feinberg, M., Willer, R., & Schultz, M. (2014). Gossip and ostracism promote cooperation in groups. Psychological Science, 25, 656-664.
27. Fischbacher, U. (2007). z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments. Experimental Economics, 10, 171-178.
28. Fowler, J. H., Johnson, T., & Smirnov, O. (2004). Egalitarian motive and altruistic punishment. Nature, 433, E1-E2.
29. Fritsche, I., Jonas, E., & Fankhänel, T. (2008). The role of control motivation in mortality salience effects on ingroup support and defense. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 524-541.
30. Fromm, E. (1973). The anatomy of human destructiveness. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
31. Gächter, S., & Herrmann, B. (2009). Reciprocity, culture and human cooperation: Previous insights and a new cross-cultural experiment. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 791-806.
32. Goette, L., Huffman, D., Meier, S., & Sutter, M. (2012). Competition between organizational groups: Its impact on altruistic and anti-social motivations. Management Science, 58, 948-960.
33. Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., Solomon, S., Rosenblatt, A., Veeder, M., Kirkland, S., & Lyon, D. (1990). Evidence for terror management theory II: The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who threaten or bolster the cultural worldview. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 308-318.
34. Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., & Arndt, J. (2008). A basic but uniquely human motivation: Terror management. In J. Y. Shah & W. L. Gardner (Eds.), Handbook of motivation science (pp. 114-134). New York: Guilford Press.
35. Greitemeyer, T. (2015). Everyday sadism predicts violent video game preferences. Personality and Individual Differences, 75, 19-23.
36. Grijalva, E., & Newman, D. A. (2015). Narcissism and counterproductive work behavior (CWB): Meta-analysis and consideration of collectivist culture, Big Five personality, and narcissism's facet structure. Applied Psychology, 64, 93-126.
37. Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. New York: The Guilford Press.
38. Herrmann, B., Thöni, C., & Gächter, S. (2008). Antisocial punishment across societies. Science, 319, 1362-1367.
39. Higgins, E. T. (1997). Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280-1300.
40. Higgins, E. T. (2012). Beyond pleasure and pain: How motivation works. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
41. Irwin, K., & Horne, C. (2013). A normative explanation of antisocial punishment. Social Science Research, 42, 562-570.
42. Jonas, E., Martens, A., Niesta, D., Fritsche, I., Sullivan, D., & Greenberg, J. (2008). Focus theory of normative conduct and terror management theory: The interactive impact of mortality salience and norm salience on social judgment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1239-1251.
43. Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2010). Different provocations trigger aggression in narcissists and psychopaths. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1, 12-18.
44. Jones, D. N., & Paulhus, D. L. (2012). Differentiating the dark triad within the interpersonal circumplex. In L. M. Horowitz & S. N. Strack (Eds.), Handbook of interpersonal theory and research (pp. 249-267). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley & Sons.
45. Krohne, H. W., Egloff, B., Kohlmann, C.-W., & Tausch, A. (1996). Untersuchungen mit einer Deutschen version der "Positive and Negative Affect Schedule" (PANAS) [studies with a German version of the "Positive and Negative Affect Schedule" (PANAS)]. Diagnostica, 42, 139-156.
46. Leary, M. R. (1999). The social and psychological importance of self-esteem. In R. M. Kowalski & M. R. Leary (Eds.), The social psychology of emotional and behavioral problems: Interfaces of social and clinical psychology (pp. 197-221). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
47. Leary, M. R., & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). The nature and function of self-esteem: Sociometer theory. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 32, pp. 1-62). New York: Academic Press.
48. Leary, M. R., Cottrell, C. A., & Phillips, M. (2001). Deconfounding the effects of dominance and social acceptance on self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 898-909.
49. McDonald, J. F., & Moffitt, R. A. (1980). The uses of Tobit analysis. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 62, 318-321.
50. Mehta, P. H., & Josephs, R. A. (2010). Testosterone and cortisol jointly regulate dominance: Evidence for a dual-hormone hypothesis. Hormones and Behavior, 58, 898-906.
51. Minson, J. A., & Monin, B. (2012). Do-gooder derogation disparaging morally motivated minorities to defuse anticipated reproach. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 3, 200-207.
52. Monin, B., Sawyer, P. J., & Marquez, M. J. (2008). The rejection of moral rebels: Resenting those who do the right thing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 76-93.
53. O'Meara, A., Davies, J., & Hammond, S. (2011). The psychometric properties and utility of the short sadistic impulse scale (SSIS). Psychological Assessment, 23, 523-531.
54. Ostrom, E. (1990). Governing the commons. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
55. Parks, C. D., & Stone, A. B. (2010). The desire to expel unselfish members from the group. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 303-310.
56. Paulhus, D. L., & Jones, D. N. (in press). Measuring dark personalities. In G. J. Boyle, D. H. Saklofske & G. Matthews (Eds.), Measures of personality and social psychological constructs. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
57. Pfattheicher, S., & Keller, J. (2013). Vigilant self-regulation and costly punishment in public goods situations. European Journal of Personality, 27, 346-354.
58. Pfattheicher, S., & Keller, J. (2014). Towards a biopsychological understanding of costly punishment: The role of basal cortisol. PLoS ONE, 9, e85691.
59. Pfattheicher, S., Landhäußer, A., & Keller, J. (2014). Individual differences in antisocial punishment in public goods situations: The interplay of cortisol with testosterone and dominance. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 27, 340-348.
60. Pfattheicher, S., & Sassenrath, C. (2014). A regulatory focus perspective on eating behavior: How promotion and prevention focus relates to emotional, external, and restrained eating. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1314.
61. Piven, J. S. (2003). Death, repression, narcissism, misogyny. The Psychoanalytic Review, 90, 225-260.
62. Preacher, K. J., Rucker, D. D., & Hayes, A. F. (2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 185-227.
63. Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Arndt, J., & Schimel, J. (2004). Why do people need self-esteem? A theoretical and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 435-468.
64. Reidy, D. E., Zeichner, A., & Seibert, L. A. (2011). Unprovoked aggression: Effects of psychopathic traits and sadism. Journal of Personality, 79, 75-100.
65. Rosenblatt, A., Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., & Lyon, D. (1989). Evidence for terror management theory: I. The effects of mortality salience on reactions to those who violate or uphold cultural values. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 681-690.
66. Schindler, S., Reinhard, M.-A., & Stahlberg, D. (2013). Tit for tat in the face of death: The effect of mortality salience on reciprocal behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49, 87-92.
67. Singer, T., & Steinbeis, N. (2009). Differential roles of fairness-and compassion-based motivations for cooperation, defection, and punishment. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1167, 41-50.
68. Sylwester, K., Herrmann, B., & Bryson, J. J. (2013). Homo homini lupus? Explaining antisocial punishment. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 6, 167-188.
69. Tabibnia, G., Satpute, A., & Lieberman, M. (2008). The sunny side of fairness. Psychological Science, 19, 339-347.
70. Trivers, R. L. (1971). The evolution of reciprocal altruism. Quarterly Review of Biology, 46, 35-57.
71. Twenge, J. M., Baumeister, R. F., Tice, D. M., & Stucke, T. S. (2001). If you can't join them, beat them: Effects of social exclusion on aggressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1058-1069.
72. Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2003). "Isn't it fun to get the respect that we're going to deserve?" Narcissism, social rejection, and aggression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 261-272.
73. van Lange, P. A. M., Balliet, D. P., Parks, C. D., & van Vugt, M. (2014). Social dilemmas: Understanding human cooperation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
74. van Lange, P. A. M., Joireman, J., Parks, C. D., & van Dijk, E. (2013). The psychology of social dilemmas: A review. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 120, 125-141.
75. Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063-1070.