Poster #58 - The effect of punishment degree on children’s evaluations of punishers

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

People punish selfish behaviors even when the behaviors do not affect them directly. This so-called third-party punishment is a key mechanism to regulate selfish behaviors and maintain cooperation (Gächter et al., 2008). However, children often show mixed attitudes towards third-party punishment. For example, children enact punishment against moral transgressions at a personal cost (McAuliffe et al., 2015; Yudkin et al., 2020) and view punishment as a way to redeem transgressors (Dunlea & Heiphetz, 2021). Yet, children sometimes evaluate punishment negatively and prefer those who compensate victims over those who punish transgressors (Lee & Warneken, 2020).

Here we suggest punishment degree is a key factor that determines whether children view punishment positively or negatively. In Study 1, 5- to 10-year-olds (n=68) heard a scenario where Person A divided resources unfairly (i.e., keeping 3 cookies for herself and giving 1 cookie to person B). Then, a third party took 0, 1, 2, or 3 items from the unfair sharer (Person A) and threw them away. Children evaluated the third party’s behavior (behavior evaluations, e.g., “Is it a good thing to do or a bad thing to do? How good/bad is it?”) and her moral character (person evaluations, e.g., “Is [third-party's name] a good person or a bad person? How good/bad is she?”) on a Likert scale.

Across age, children evaluated taking 0 items from the unfair sharer (“no punishment”) most positively, while evaluating taking 3 items (“harshest punishment”) most negatively (Figure 1). We did not observe differences between behavior and character evaluations. This result suggests that children overall do not endorse punishment as an appropriate response to unfair sharing.

This result could reflect children’s genuine negative judgments of punishment. However, 4- to 8-year-olds perceive unfair sharing as less serious than other transgressions, such as stealing (Yucel et al., 2022). Therefore, it is also possible that participants did not conceptualize unfair sharing as a moral transgression that deserved punishment.

In Study 2, 5- to 10-year-olds (n=68) learned about a more serious transgression in which People A and B both had two food items and then Person A took one of Person B's items without asking. Then, as in Study 1, a third party took 0, 1, 2, or 3 items from the transgressor (Person A) and threw them away. Younger children evaluated taking 2 items (“equality-establishing punishment”) more positively, and taking 0 items more negatively, than older children (Figure 2). However, children’s preference for punishment declined over development, suggesting that with age children do not consider punishment as an appropriate response to the transgression.

Together, the current results show that punishment degree is a key factor that children consider when judging third-party punishment, particularly when the underlying transgression is relatively severe. Further, the present research casts doubt on the assumption in the existing literature that people consider punishment as an appropriate intervention.

Authors

• Young-Eun Lee, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Larisa Heiphetz Solomon, Columbia University