The Rewards of Punishment A Relational Theory of Norm Enforcement [Hardcover]

The Rewards of Punishmentdescribes a new social theory of norms to provide a compelling explanation why people punish. Identifying mechanisms that link interdependence with norm enforcement, it reveals how social relationships lead individuals to enforce norms, even when doing so makes little sense.

This groundbreaking book tells the whole story, from ideas, to experiments, to real-world applications. In addition to addressing longstanding theoretical puzzlessuch as why harmful behavior is not always punished, why individuals enforce norms in ways that actually hurt the group, why people enforce norms that benefit others rather than themselves, why groups punish behavior that has only trivial effects, and why atypical behaviors are sometimes punished and sometimes notit explores the implications of the theory for substantive issues, including norms regulating sex, crime, and international human rights.

Horne's very innovative ideas, particularly her discussion of the origin of political correctness as an over-enforcement of norms, are insightful and original, as are the experiments she has designed to test them. This work includes one of the best defenses of the experimental method around and the real-life examples and empirical puzzles will pique readers' intrinsic interest. Christine Horne is Associate Professor of Sociology at Washington State University. She is editor ofTheories of Social Order(Stanford 2003, 2009) with Michael Hechter andExperiments in Criminology and Lawwith Michal Lovaglia. In this elegant short volume, Horne exhibits a mastery of experimental methods used to evaluate theories of norm enforcement and also shows a nearly staggering breadth of reference to philosophical, literary, economic, and political theory, as well as relevant concepts from within experimental psychology.Tour de forcecomes to mind as an apt description of what she treats us with inThe Rewards of Punishment: A Relational Theory l³c