Decisions are rarely made in social isolation. One phenomenon often observed in social interactions is altruistic punishment, i.e. the punishment of unfair behavior by others at a personal cost. The tendency for altruistic punishment is altered by affective states including those induced by stress exposure. Stress is thought to exert bi-directional effects on behavior: immediately after stress, reflex-like and habitual behavior is promoted while later on more far-sighted, flexible and goal-directed behavior is enhanced. We hypothesized that such time-dependent effects of stress would also be present in the context of altruistic punishment behavior. Healthy male participants (N=80) were exposed to either a grouped stress test or a control condition. Participants were tested in prosocial decision making tasks either directly after stress or 75min later. Altruistic punishment was assessed using the Ultimatum Game. General altruism was assessed with a one-shot version of the Dictator Game in which an anonymous donation could be offered to a charitable organization. We found that stress caused a bi-directional effect on altruistic punishment, with decreased rejection rates in the late aftermath of stress in response to ambiguous 30% offers. In the Dictator Game, stressed participants were less generous than controls, but no time-dependent effect was observed, indicating that the general reward sensitivity remained unchanged at various time-points after stress. Overall, during the late aftermath after acute stress exposure (i.e. 75min later), participants acted more consistent with their own material self-interest, and had a lower propensity for altruistic punishment, possibly through upregulation of cognitive self-control mechanisms. Thus, our findings underscore the importance of time as a factor in simple, real-life economic decisions in a stressful social context.