  Experimental studies regularly show that third-party punishment (TPP)
substantially exists in various settings. This study further investigates the
robustness of TPP under an environment where context effects are involved. In
our experiment, we offer a third party an additional but unattractive risky
investment option. We find that, when the dominated investment option
irrelevant to prosocial behavior is available, the demand for punishment
decreases, whereas the demand for investment increases. These findings support
our hypothesis that the seemingly unrelated and dominated investment option may
work as a compromise and suggest the fragility of TPP in this setting.
