Punishing as a means to morality

People Prefer Belonging To Groups In Which Members Can Punish Freeloaders

People like to exert morality. That's what this story is about. We are moral beings, whether we choose to act as one or not is a matter of free will. Most of these test subjects, in the beginning, chose to be part of a group where there is no punishment. It reminds me of my old hippy days when I was a bit more idealistic, thinking there could be such a place where everyone lives harmoniously in equality. Whatever. I've grown up since then. Now I know that kind of idea could never really exist. There are always going to be people who use any situation to their advantage to get ahead of the group. In this study, people freeloaded. They took advantage of the fact that there was no method of punishment in that group. Everyone in the study quickly realized this and that's why they chose to switch over to the group where they could punish the freeloaders. Funny enough though, when the freeloaders moved over to that group, they started dishing out punishments as well. After a while, everything evened out and there was no need to punish. Just the threat of punishment in that group was enough of a deterrent for the freeloaders to curb their initial impulses and become one of the group exerting their morality. What's unfortunate is that people can't just act morally without a threat of punishment. My idealistic side might have grown up, but it's not dead all together...