http://www.newyorktimes.com SCIENCE | January 22, 2002 =A0 The Urge to Punish Cheats: Not Just Human, but Selfless By NATALIE ANGIER (NYT) News Only recently have researchers realized that a willingness, even eagerness, to punish transgressors of the social compact is at least as important to ..

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---------------------------------------------- Operation Clambake Forum: Opinions & Debate: Why do we ache to see Scientology punished?

---------------------------------------------- By pippi (Pippi) on Wednesday, January 23, 2002 - 09:33 am:

Why do I feel a stomach turning revulsion at the thought of Scientology?

And why do I criticize Scientology and want to see it wither and die (from natural causes)?

Why do I want to see them punished for their maltreatment of children and for their criminal negligence that killed Lisa McPherson and their fraudulent business practices.

The recent research of two Swiss social scientists may provide a clue.

The New York Times has an article today (Jan 22) titled The Urge to Punish Cheats: Not Just Human, but Selfless "Such a readiness to trust others, to behave civilly in a crowd, to share and empathize, to play the occasional Samaritan -- all the behaviors that we laud and endorse and vow to cultivate more fully in ourselves -- could not have evolved without a corresponding readiness to catch, and to punish, the Cheat.

Only recently have researchers realized that a willingness, even eagerness, to punish transgressors of the social compact is at least as important to the maintenance of social harmony as are regular displays of common human decency.

And while the punitive urge may seem like a lowly and unsavory impulse, scientists point out that the effort to penalize cheaters is very often a selfless act."

The original research, published in the Journal Nature (Jan 10 2002, vol 415, p 137-140), uncovered that people will punish those who "cheat"

even if there is a substantial cost to them for administering punishment.

As the NYT summarizes above, this behavior is thought to be part of a basic human instinct to maintain social structure and cooperation.

I don't think that my joking and degrading of Scientology and Ron Hubbard are themselves 'selfless acts of altruism', but rather they are a reaction to the frustration I feel at not being able to do more to stop the abuses of Scientology - abuses which in no way touch my life personally.

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