2023 Volume 62 Issue 2 Pages 169-181
Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, some people in Japan have started voluntarily and anonymously policing others who do not engage in infection prevention behaviors. Such extreme ways of enforcing norms to prevent the spread of COVID-19 may have serious consequences since the targets essentially become victims of kangaroo courts. This study examined the possibility that such aggressive behavior is based on strong reciprocity, which is one of the proposed mechanisms that may have made humans super-cooperative. An online survey measured several aspects of strong reciprocity (e.g., altruistic punishment, altruistic rewarding), impressions of and behavioral intentions toward those who violate infection prevention norms and COVID-19 patients, and the degree to which the respondents engaged in infection prevention behaviors. The results revealed that the tendency to engage in altruistic punishment had a positive effect on aggression toward those who violated infection prevention norms and COVID-19 patients only among those who engaged in infection prevention behaviors. This suggests that altruistic punishment may promote aggression toward those who violate infection prevention norms in people who follow such norms.
