Would be nice if you explained in more detail what exactly do you mean. IMHO, this is too reductionist. I can only guess:
I imagine punishment works better on children but worse on adults. I imagine it works better against psychopaths than people who have empathy. I imagine it works better on people who coldly calculate than on people who impulsively give to emotions. I imagine it works better on people from the same ingroup than from the outgroup.
Each of these items alone can explain why you can see the effect psychologically but not socially.
