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Free keywords:
Punishment, Deterrence, Special Prevention, Jeremy Bentham, Experiment, Public Good
Abstract:
The most famous element in Bentham’s theory of punishment, the Panopticon Prison, expresses his view of the two purposes of punishment, deterrence and special prevention. This paper investigates Bentham’s intuition in a public goods lab experiment, by manipulating how much information on punishment experienced by others is available to would-be offenders. Compared with the tone that Jeremy Bentham set, the result is non-expected: If would-be offenders learn about contributions and punishment of others at the individual level, they contribute much less to the public project.
