A Game Theoretic Analysis of the Components of Punishment

This study examined the interactions of the components of punishment on human subjects. While the effects of certainty and severity were in the expected directions, the main and interaction effects of celerity produced unexpected outcomes-namely, the more immediate the punishment the less the likelihood of behavioral extinction. Moreover, this paradoxical result was found to be contingent on the varying levels of certainty and severity. It is suggested that cognitive processes may account for these unexpected relationships, and two possibilities drawn from the criminology literature are explored.