Breaking a norm elicits both material and emotional consequences, yet how this coupling arose evolutionarily remains unclear. We investigate this question in light of emerging work suggesting that normativity's building blocks emerged earlier in evolution than previously considered, arguing that normative processes should inform accounts of how even ancient capacities such as mood evolved. Using a definition of normative processes we developed, we created an agent-based model with evolvable affect in a shared resource dilemma, comparing competition (non-normative) versus punishment (normative) conditions. Critically, different mood mechanisms emerge under each condition. Under competition, agents evolve a "bad mood -> consume more" response, creating a tragedy of the commons leading to resource depletion and population collapse. Under punishment, agents evolve a "bad mood -> consume less" mechanism, where negative affect functions as an implicit signal of social sanction, promoting resource conservation. Importantly, once normative logic is imprinted through punishment, it creates an evolutionary pathway for mood-based signalling that operates without costly physical enforcement. Our findings demonstrate how normative processes enable social preferences to emerge in a distributed manner within psychological mechanisms, showing how normative processes reprogram cognitive and physiological systems by embedding cultural patterns into psychological dispositions.

翻译：违反规范会引发物质和情感双重后果，但这一耦合关系在演化中如何形成尚不明确。本研究基于新兴研究——这些研究表明规范性构建模块的出现时间早于既往认知——探讨该问题，主张规范性过程应被纳入解释情绪等古老能力如何演化的理论框架。采用我们提出的规范性过程定义，我们在共享资源困境中构建了一个具有可演化情感机制的基于智能体的模型，比较了竞争（非规范性）与惩罚（规范性）两种条件。关键发现是，不同条件下演化出相异的情緒机制。在竞争条件下，智能体演化出"情绪低落→消耗更多"的反应模式，导致公地悲剧、资源枯竭与种群崩溃。在惩罚条件下，智能体演化出"情绪低落→消耗更少"的机制，此时负面情感作为社会制裁的隐性信号发挥作用，促进资源保护。重要的是，一旦通过惩罚将规范性逻辑内化，便为基于情绪的信号传递开辟了演化路径，这种路径无需代价高昂的物理强制即可运作。我们的研究结果揭示了规范性过程如何使社会偏好以分布式方式在心理机制中涌现，展现了规范性过程通过将文化模式嵌入心理倾向，实现对认知与生理系统的重新编程。