Cool cross-cultural research shows that small, traditional cultures—say, hunter-gatherers or subsistence farmers—don’t carry out third-party punishment (either in real life or when playing economic games). They fully understand when cheating occurs but just don’t bother. Explanation: everyone knows each other and what they’re up to, so you don’t need fancy third-party enforcement to rein in antisocial behavior. Supporting this, the larger the society, the more formalized the third-party policing. In addition, fourth-party punishing of third-party cheating works best when there are only a small
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