The Moral Punishment Instinct

by Jan-Willem van Prooijen (Author)

Punishment of offenders is one of the most universal features of human behavior. Across time and cultures it has been common for people to punish offenders, and one can easily find examples of punishment among ancient hunter-gatherers, in holy scriptures, in popular culture, and in contemporary courts of law. Punishment is not restricted to criminal offenders, but emerges within all spheres of our social life, including corporations, public institutions, traffic, sports matches, schools, parenting, and more. Punishment strongly influences what we think, how we feel, and what we do.

The Moral Punishment Instinct asserts that people possess a hard-wired tendency to aggress against those who violate the norms of their group. We have evolved this instinct because of its power to control behavior by curbing selfishness and free-riding, thereby providing incentives to stimulate the mutual cooperation that ancient hunter-gatherers needed in order to survive in challenging natural environments.

In this book, Jan-Willem van Prooijen methodically describes how punishment originates from moral emotions, stimulates cooperation, and shapes the social life of human beings. Guided by a host of recognizable and relatable examples, this book illuminates how the moral punishment instinct manifests itself among a variety of modern human cultures, children, tribes of hunter-gatherers, and even non-human animals-all while accounting for the role of this instinct in religion, war, racial bias, restorative justice, gossip, torture, and radical terrorism.

"Whether sitting on a jury or shaking a finger at a wayward child, have you ever stopped to wonder why you had that urge to punish? This book is the answer to that question! Drawing on a vast array of evidence from psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, anthropology and philosophy, Jan-Willem van Prooijen engagingly explains our urge to punish, its origins and purpose, and why punishment is so intricately intertwined with morality. This is a timely and compelling book with valuable lessons for our increasingly pluralistic society."
–Sarah Brosnan, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Georgia State University


"van Prooijen thoroughly reviews the pertinent conceptual frameworks and empirical findings on punishment and integrates them into a consistent and plausible conceptual framework that builds on the assumption that the effectiveness of punishment to comply with social norms has helped a 'sense of morality' evolve. This is a valuable, well-written, and thought-provoking book, and it will attract a broad readership inside and outside academia."
–Mario Gollwitzer, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Marburg

About the Author

Jan-Willem van Prooijen is Associate Professor at the Department of Experimental and Applied Psychology of VU University Amsterdam, and a Senior Researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR).



Feel Free to contact me for book requests, informations or feedbacks.