They Can't Do That to Our Brokers. Only We Can Do That to Our Brokers!

The Science section of the Times, this morning, has an interesting article on the evolutionary underpinnings of the desire to punish misbehavers.

The context, of course, is all the monkeyshines that have been going on on Wall Street and people's desire (need?) to find someone to punish for causing problems well-beyond those directly and knowingly involved.

Smart as we may be, though not as smart as we might think we are, the evolutionary psychology folks have some valuable observations about the need to punish. In the animal kingdom, as well as in tribes without formal systems of 'government,' there's a demonstrated and predictable trend for groups to punish people whose actions hurt the group as a whole.

Luckily, of course, there's also a demonstrated desire for cooperation and room for forgiveness.

The authors also cite a fair amount of game theory / experimental economics to support the rest of the article. It's a nice overview of the topic and well worth your 15 minutes if I do say so myself.