Determinants of Anti-Social Punishment: An Experimental Study of Kavango Timber Users

Abstract

"The forest savannah of the Kavango Region in the North-East of Namibia is one of the few remaining resources of wood for a country that is threatened by deforestation. We used a standard public goods experiment framed as a task to extract timber from a commonly owned forest with the possibility to punish each other to analyse determinants of antisocial punishment (i.e. the sanctioning of people who cooperate). Especially, the result of Herrmann et al. (2008) suggests that cross-cultural differences exists and that the efficiency of the punishment rule depends on strong social norms of cooperation. First results suggest that antisocial punishment (ASP) occurred in Kavango as well. We highlight the role of revenge (and to lesser degree of dominance) for ASP and combine our finding with ethnographic evidence on envy and spite in the society."