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. 2014 Jan 8;9(1):e85691.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0085691. eCollection 2014.

Towards a biopsychological understanding of costly punishment: the role of basal cortisol

Stefan Pfattheicher  1 , Johannes Keller  1
Affiliations

Towards a biopsychological understanding of costly punishment: the role of basal cortisol

Stefan Pfattheicher et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Recent findings have documented a negative relation of basal endogenous cortisol and aggression after a provocation (i.e., reactive aggression) in humans. We build on these findings and investigated the relation of endogenous cortisol and reactive aggression in a social dilemma situation, that is, costly punishment of individuals who did not appropriately contribute to a common group project. Specifically, we predicted that basal cortisol is negatively related to costly punishment of uncooperative individuals. In the present study, basal cortisol was assessed prior to a public goods game with the option to punish other group members. In line with previous research on reactive aggression and basal cortisol, we found that basal cortisol was indeed negatively related to costly punishment. The findings are important for understanding costly punishment because this tendency has been documented as a possible basis for the evolution of cooperation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Scatterplot and OLS regression slope of the relation between basal cortisol and costly punishment.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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