A new study indicates that we humans seem to get more reward from punishing wrongdoers compared to compensating victims.
…By combining a novel decision-making paradigm with functional neuroimaging, we identified specific brain networks that are involved with both the perception of, and response to, social injustice, with reward-related regions preferentially involved in punishment compared to compensation. (Source)
Whether we favor punishment over compensation or not, it’s obvious that we humans like punishment and do it often.
My guess is this accounts for a big part of interpersonal strife. Rather than look for a solution to interpersonal problems, a common default mode is to blame and punish instead. We even blame and punish ourselves.
This is why it is so important to know how to identify problems as they arise and how to deal with them as soon as possible.
Since we are probably born with a tendency to favor punishment, this must be taken into consideration whenever we make social and interpersonal decisions.
