Punishment can be a self-replicating meme in the following way. If you were punished for doing something fun, and this hurt you & messed up your motivation structure, you'll resent others you see "getting away with" the same behavior, and punish them, out of envy.
-
Show this thread
-
Replying to @s_r_constantin
A lack of punishment can similarly bet self-replicating. So this fact of self-replicating doesn't tell us if we have too much or too little punishment.
2 replies 0 retweets 5 likes -
Replying to @robinhanson @s_r_constantin
There are more critiques than "too much" or "too little." You know this! http://www.overcomingbias.com/2007/05/policy_tugowar.html …
1 reply 0 retweets 1 like -
It's nontrivial & important to understand that when many people punish or fail to punish a behavior, these are not independent trials separately computed directly from decision theory + personal impressions, but often mimetic replications of ecologically successful behaviors.
2 replies 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @ben_r_hoffman @s_r_constantin
Uh, that applies to pretty much all human behavior; no need to note it specifically for punishment.
1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes -
Replying to @robinhanson @s_r_constantin
The specific mechanism Sarah is pointing to is important for interpreting the data, though. Agreed that if she were just saying "some punishment is mimetic" it would be trivial and boring. But she's saying some punishment is a cycle of abuse, which is somewhat different.
2 replies 0 retweets 3 likes -
On second thought I'm not even sure that pointing to concrete examples of a general trend is trivial and boring. It's sort of obvious in principle that mimesis would happen, but without working through a few very different examples I'll keep forgetting!
1 reply 0 retweets 3 likes
If you're trying to imply that my tweet seems "biased" by my tendency not to like punishment, it probably is! I don't totally refrain from sharing my values on Twitter.
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.