The damages experiment, as described here, seems not to nail things down enough to say that what’s going on is that damages are expressions of outrage on a scale with arbitrary modulus. Here’s one alternative explanation that seems consistent with everything you’ve said: subjects vary considerably in their assessment of how effective a given level of damages is in deterring malfeasance, and that assessment influences (in the obvious way) their assessment of damages.
(I should add that I find the arbitrary-modulus explanation more plausible.)
The damages experiment, as described here, seems not to nail things down enough to say that what’s going on is that damages are expressions of outrage on a scale with arbitrary modulus. Here’s one alternative explanation that seems consistent with everything you’ve said: subjects vary considerably in their assessment of how effective a given level of damages is in deterring malfeasance, and that assessment influences (in the obvious way) their assessment of damages.
(I should add that I find the arbitrary-modulus explanation more plausible.)