How does collective punishment work? The role of anticipated negative intragroup reactions

Abstract Intragroup collective punishment has been a common sanctioning practice throughout history and remains prevalent in modern societies. Yet, we know little about its effectiveness and even less about the psychological processes that might explain it. Theoretical approaches that deem collective punishment effective assume that the threat of a group‐level sanction promotes an internal control system. We argue that even without internal control systems, people's anticipation of negative intragroup reactions for activating collective punishment can render it effective. We present four experiments, three with vignettes and one with behavioural measures ( N  = 722), manipulating whether cheating results in individual or group‐level punishment and measuring cheating as well as concern about negative intragroup reactions. The findings show that collective punishment effectively deters wrongdoing and that this is consistent with mediation by anticipated negative intragroup reactions. The findings contribute to our understanding of collective punishment, collective responsibility, and deterrence.