Highlights

► We investigate whether men and women differ with respect to their inclination to punish norm-breakers. ► Generally, there is no such gender difference. However, the gender context in which decisions are made can create such a difference. ► In Experiment 1 we find that men punish less when they make their decisions individually but surrounded by other men, and with no women present. ► In Experiment 2 we study a different gender context: decisions are taken by groups of two or three and the gender composition of the group is varied. Here, all-male groups are less prone to punish, compared with all-female and mixed groups. This confirms the gender context result in Experiment 1. ► When considering action profiles over several games, we find no support for the potential explanation that this aspect of male behavior might be understood as a tendency to less reciprocity.