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Katz T, Kushnir T, Tomasello M. Children are eager to take credit for prosocial acts, and cost affects this tendency. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 237:105764. [PMID: 37690347 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105764] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2023] [Revised: 08/07/2023] [Accepted: 08/08/2023] [Indexed: 09/12/2023]
Abstract
We report two experiments on children's tendency to enhance their reputations through communicative acts. In the experiments, 4-year-olds (N = 120) had the opportunity to inform a social partner that they had helped him in his absence. In a first experiment, we pitted a prosocial act ("Let's help clean up for Doggie!") against an instrumental act ("Let's move these out of our way"). Children in the prosocial condition were quicker to inform their partner of the act and more likely to protest when another individual was given credit for it. In a second experiment, we replicated the prosocial condition but with a new manipulation: high-cost versus low-cost helping. We manipulated both the language surrounding cost (i.e., "This will be pretty tough to clean up" vs. "It will be really easy to clean this up") and how difficult the task itself was. As predicted, children in the high-cost condition were quicker to inform their partner of the act and more likely to take back credit for it. These results suggest that even 4-year-old children make active attempts to elicit positive reputational judgments for their prosocial acts, with cost as a moderating factor.
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2
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Yang F, Roberts SO. Condemned or valued: Young children evaluate nonconformity based on nonconformists' group orientations. Cognition 2024; 242:105660. [PMID: 37951178 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105660] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2023] [Revised: 09/11/2023] [Accepted: 11/01/2023] [Indexed: 11/13/2023]
Abstract
Nonconformity--the act of deviating from established norms and expectations of one's group--is often evaluated negatively, despite its potential benefits for society. Three preregistered studies (N = 153) examined how nonconformists' group orientations (attitudes and intentions toward ingroup and outgroups) might affect 4-6-year-olds' evaluations of nonconformity in intergroup situations. Study 1 examined children's default beliefs of nonconformists' group attitudes toward ingroup and outgroup. We found that children expected nonconformists to hold more positive attitudes toward their outgroup than toward their ingroup, and this expectation predicted their disapproval of nonconformity. In Study 2, however, when nonconformity was explicitly motivated by positive intentions toward the ingroup rather than toward the outgroup, children were more accepting of nonconformity. Study 3 found that among nonconformists with different types of group orientations (positive toward the outgroup, ingroup or both group), young children evaluated the most positively nonconformists who bring the ingroup and the outgroup together. Collectively, these findings suggest that children evaluate nonconformity based on nonconformists' group orientations, illuminating one mechanism for how nonconformity could be more socially accepted and valued.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fan Yang
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, 5848 South University Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, United States.
| | - Steven O Roberts
- Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Jordan Hall, 450 Serra Mall, BLDG 420, Stanford, CA 94305, United States.
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3
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Vanderbilt KE, Rizzo MT, Blankenship J. Preschoolers selectively trust and selectively share with others based on their past accuracy and intentions. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 228:105610. [PMID: 36592579 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2021] [Revised: 12/10/2022] [Accepted: 12/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
This study investigated whether preschool-age children consider both an individual's past accuracy and intentions when deciding whether to trust and share with that individual. The participants, 3- to 5-year-olds (N = 168), played a searching game with partners who varied in both accuracy (accurate or inaccurate) and intentions (prosocial or antisocial). Children received advice from partners about where to look for a hidden object, earning prizes for correct guesses. Then they were given an opportunity to share their prizes with their partner. Results indicated that children trusted sources who provided accurate advice (regardless of intentions) and shared with sources who provided accurate advice or demonstrated prosocial intentions. These findings suggest that children attend to both an individual's accuracy and intentions when deciding how to interact with social partners and may weigh this information differently to make different social decisions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kimberly E Vanderbilt
- Department of Psychology, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, CA 92096, USA.
| | - Michael T Rizzo
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
| | - Jayd Blankenship
- Department of Psychology, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, CA 92096, USA
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4
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Wang X, Chen Z, Van Tongeren DR, DeWall CN, Yang F. Permitting immoral behaviour: A generalized compensation belief hypothesis. Br J Psychol 2023; 114:21-38. [PMID: 36018288 DOI: 10.1111/bjop.12593] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
When are we more likely to permit immoral behaviours? The current research examined a generalized compensation belief hypothesis that individuals, as observers, would morally tolerate and accept someone paying forward unfair treatment to an innocent person as a means to compensate for the perpetrator's previously experienced mistreatment. Across five experiments (N = 1107) based on economic games (Studies 1-4) and diverse real-life scenarios (Study 5), we showed that participants, as observing third parties, were more likely to morally permit and engage in the same negative act once they knew about previous maltreatment of the perpetrator. This belief occurred even when the content of received and paid-forward maltreatment was non-identical (Study 2), when the negative treatment was received from a non-human target (Study 3) and when the maltreatment was intangible (e.g. material loss) or relational (e.g. social exclusion; Study 5). Perceived required compensation mediated the effect of previous maltreatment on moral permission (Studies 4 and 5). The results consistently suggest that people's moral permission of immoral behaviours is influenced by perpetrator's previous mistreatment, contributing to a better understanding of the nature and nuances of our sense of fairness and contextualized moral judgement.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xijing Wang
- Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | - Zhansheng Chen
- Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
| | | | - C Nathan DeWall
- Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
| | - Fan Yang
- Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
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5
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Li M, Li W, Yang Q, Huang L. Altruistic preferences of pre-service teachers: The mediating role of empathic concern and the moderating role of self-control. Front Psychol 2022; 13:999105. [PMID: 36389580 PMCID: PMC9649679 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.999105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/20/2022] [Accepted: 09/30/2022] [Indexed: 09/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Empathy and altruistic behavior are more crucial abilities for pre-service teachers to possess when compared with other study fields. The relationship between empathy and altruistic behavior in Chinese pre-service teachers and their underlying mechanisms, however, has received relatively little attention in the literature. Therefore, the goal of the current study was to examine the links between study fields (i.e., pre-service teachers whose study field is pedagogy and non-pre-service teachers whose study field is non-pedagogy), self-control, emotional empathy (i.e., empathic concern), and altruistic preferences among undergraduates and graduates in five Chinese universities (the age range of participants is 18-20 years; 58.4% women) with the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C Questionnaire, the Self-Control Scale, and the Chinese Self-Report Altruism Scale tests. The results showed a significant difference between pre-service and non-pre-service teachers in empathic concern and self-control. Furthermore, empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency of pre-service teachers were significantly higher than those of non-pre-service teachers. Moreover, mediation analyses indicated that empathic concern partially mediated the relationship between study fields and altruistic tendency. Moderated mediation analysis further revealed that self-control buffered the relation between empathic concern and altruistic behavior tendency. These results demonstrate that altruistic tendency of pre-service teachers is influenced by empathic concern and self-control.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maohao Li
- Faculty of Education, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
| | - Wei Li
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- Institute of Psychological Science, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Qun Yang
- Department of Psychology, School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
- Institute of Psychological Science, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Lihui Huang
- Institute of Brain and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu, China
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6
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Gonzalez‐Gadea ML, Dominguez A, Petroni A. Decisions and mechanisms of intergroup bias in children's third‐party punishment. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/sode.12608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- María Luz Gonzalez‐Gadea
- Cognitive Neuroscience Center Universidad de San Andres Buenos Aires Argentina
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) Argentina
| | | | - Agustin Petroni
- National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) Argentina
- Instituto de Investigación en Ciencias de la Computación (ICC), CONICET‐Universidad de Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Argentina
- Instituto de Ingeniería Biomédica Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad de Buenos Aires Buenos Aires Argentina
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7
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Bowie A, Zhou W, Tan J, White P, Stoinski T, Su Y, Hare B. Motivating children's cooperation to conserve forests. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY : THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR CONSERVATION BIOLOGY 2022; 36. [PMID: 35435284 DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13922] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Accepted: 12/24/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Forests are essential common-pool resources. Understanding children's and adolescents' motivations for conservation is critical to improving conservation education. In 2 experiments, we investigated 1086 school-aged children and adolescents (6-16 years old) from China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the United States. testING participants in groups, we assessed their motivation for conservation based on collective-risk common-pool goods games in which they are threatened with losing their endowment unless the group donation exceeds a threshold needed to maintain the forest.eExtrinsic motivations, rather than intrinsic , tended to lead to successful cooperation to maintain a forest. Certainty of losing individual payoffs significantly boosted successful cooperative conservation efforts across cultures (success rates were 90.63 % and 74.19% in the 2 risk-extrinsic conditions and 43.75% in the control condition). In U.S. participants, 2 extrinsic incentives, priming discussions of the value of forests and delay of payoffs as punishment , also increased success of cooperative conservation (success rates were 97.22% and 76.92% in the 2 extrinsic-incentive conditions and 29.19% and 30.77% in the 2 control conditions). Conservation simulations, like those we used, may allow educators to encourage forest protection by leading groups to experience successful cooperation and the extrinsic incentives needed to motivate forest conservation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleah Bowie
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Wen Zhou
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Jingzhi Tan
- Institute of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Philip White
- Department of Statistics, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
| | | | - Yanjie Su
- Peking University, School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Beijing, China
| | - Brian Hare
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
- Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
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8
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Engelmann JM, Herrmann E, Proft M, Keupp S, Dunham Y, Rakoczy H. Chimpanzees consider freedom of choice in their evaluation of social action. Biol Lett 2022; 18:20210502. [PMID: 35193368 PMCID: PMC8864344 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2021.0502] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Judgements of wrongdoing in humans often hinge upon an assessment of whether a perpetrator acted out of free choice: whether they had more than one option. The classic inhibitors of free choice are constraint (e.g. having your hands tied together) and ignorance (e.g. being unaware that an alternative exists). Here, across two studies, we investigate whether chimpanzees consider these factors in their evaluation of social action. Chimpanzees interacted with a human experimenter who handed them a non-preferred item of food, either because they were physically constrained from accessing the preferred item (Experiment 1) or because they were ignorant of the availability of the preferred item (Experiment 2). We found that chimpanzees were more likely to accept the non-preferred food and showed fewer negative emotional responses when the experimenter was physically constrained compared with when they had free choice. We did not, however, find an effect of ignorance on chimpanzee's evaluation. Freedom of choice factors into chimpanzees' evaluation of how they are treated, but it is unclear whether mental state reasoning is involved in this assessment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jan M. Engelmann
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94705, USA
| | - Esther Herrmann
- Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2DY, UK
| | - Marina Proft
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Georg-Elias Müller Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Stefanie Keupp
- Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, Deutsches Primatenzentrum GmbH, Kellnerweg 4, 37073 Göttingen, Germany,Leibniz Science Campus Primate Cognition, Göttingen, Germany,Department for Primate Cognition, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Yarrow Dunham
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA
| | - Hannes Rakoczy
- Department of Developmental Psychology, Georg-Elias Müller Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany
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9
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Gummerum M, López-Pérez B, Van Dijk E, Van Dillen LF. Ire and punishment: Incidental anger and costly punishment in children, adolescents, and adults. J Exp Child Psychol 2022; 218:105376. [PMID: 35114578 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105376] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2021] [Revised: 01/10/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2022] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Why do children, adolescents, and adults engage in costly punishment to sanction fairness violations? Two studies investigated the differential impact of incidental anger on the costly punishment of 8-year-olds, 13-year-olds, and adults. Focusing on experimentally manipulated incidental anger allows for a causal investigation as to whether and how anger affects costly punishment in these age groups in addition to other motives such as inequity aversion. Study 1 (N = 210) assessed the effect of incidental anger (vs. a neutral emotion) on second-party punishment, where punishers were direct victims of fairness violations. Study 2 (N = 208) examined third-party punishment, where the punisher was an observer unaffected by the violation. Across ages, incidental anger increased the second-party punishment of unequal offers but not equal offers. Thus, anger seems to play a causal role in the punishment of unfairness when fairness violations are self-relevant. As predicted, adults' third-party punishment of unequal offers was higher in the incidental anger condition than in the neutral emotion condition. Children's third-party punishment of unfairness was not affected by the emotion condition, but incidental anger increased adolescents' third-party punishment across offers. Overall, our data suggest that the association between anger and costly punishment is based on the self-relevance of the violation. In third-party situations, where unfairness does not affect the self, social-cognitive processes that develop well into adulthood, such as emotional appraisals, might be necessary for third parties to engage in costly punishment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michaela Gummerum
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK; School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK.
| | - Belén López-Pérez
- School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK; Department of Psychology, Liverpool Hope University, Hope Park, Liverpool L16 9JD, UK
| | - Eric Van Dijk
- Social, Economic, and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands
| | - Lotte F Van Dillen
- Social, Economic, and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands; Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden University, 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands
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10
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Rostovtseva VV, Mezentseva AA, Butovskaya ML. Perception of Emergent Leaders' Faces and Evolution of Social Cheating: Cross-Cultural Experiments. EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY 2022; 20:14747049221081733. [PMID: 35238674 PMCID: PMC10355292 DOI: 10.1177/14747049221081733] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Revised: 01/23/2022] [Accepted: 01/28/2022] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate whether neutral faces of individuals with different propensities for leadership may convey information about their personal qualities, and are there impacts of sex, population and social environment on the facial perception. This study is based on a previous experiment ( Rostovtseva et al., 2022), where emergent leadership in the context of male group cooperation was investigated in Buryats (Mongolian population of Siberia). In the previous study three behavioural types of participants were revealed: non-leaders, prosocial leaders and leaders-cheaters, each having a set of distinguishing personality, communicative, and cooperative features. In the current study, three composite portraits representing different leadership qualities of Buryat men from the prior experiment were created. The composites were then scored on a number of traits by male and female Russian and Buryat independent raters (N = 435). The results revealed that ratings on masculinity, physical strength, dominance, competitiveness, and perceived leadership were positively correlated, while perceived trustworthiness was negatively associated with these traits. However, the composite portraits of actual leaders generally were scored as more trustworthy, masculine, and physically strong, with the prosocial leaders' portrait being perceived as healthier than others. Surprisingly, the composite of leaders-cheaters was scored as the most trustworthy and generous, and the least competitive than others. No significant effects of raters' sex, origin, or degree of familiarity with Mongolian appearance were revealed. We conclude that static facial morphology contributes to appearing trustworthy, which may allow exploitation of others.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Anna A. Mezentseva
- Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119334, Russia
| | - Marina L. Butovskaya
- Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 119334, Russia
- Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, 125047, Russia
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11
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Martín AJ, Sol RF. Variation in the Structure and Role of Religious Institutions. CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1086/717777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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12
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Li M, Shangguan C, Shi H, Lu J. "Watching Eyes" Triggers Third-Party Punishment: The Role of Emotion Within the Eyes. Front Psychol 2021; 12:681664. [PMID: 34335395 PMCID: PMC8320698 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.681664] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 06/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Third-party punishment refers to a behavioral phenomenon whereby people punish wrongdoers even if their sanction incurs personal costs but yields no direct benefits. Given the eye cues demonstrated ability to convey signals of being observed, its effect on third-party punishment, driven by virtue of its effects on others' perceptions, was investigated. In addition, emotional message featured in the eye region is crucial in social interaction, whether the emotion within the eyes serves this effect with varying degrees of influence has rarely considered. The present study aimed at exploring (a) the watching eyes effect on the third-party punishment and (b) whether this effect varies from negative eyes to positive eyes. By two experiments using a modified Third-Party Dictator Game, we displayed either eye images or control images above the question on whether to punish the dictators or not. There was no emotional diversity of eye cues in Experiment 1, and most participants tended to punish for unfair offer. However, the appearance of eye images increased the punishment relative to control images. In Experiment 2, the eye cues were subdivided into positive and negative. The effect of watching eyes on the third-party punishment was significantly stronger when the eyes were negative than positive. Results revealed that eye cues play a role in promoting the third-party punishment and offer a potential insight into the mixed findings, such that the emotion within the eyes, especially the negative expression in the eyes, may influence the watching eyes effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingping Li
- Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Chenyu Shangguan
- College of Education Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunictions, Nanjing, China
| | - Huqing Shi
- Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jiamei Lu
- Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China
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13
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Marshall J, Yudkin DA, Crockett MJ. Children punish third parties to satisfy both consequentialist and retributive motives. Nat Hum Behav 2020; 5:361-368. [PMID: 33230281 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-00975-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/14/2019] [Accepted: 09/21/2020] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Adults punish moral transgressions to satisfy both retributive motives (such as wanting antisocial others to receive their 'just deserts') and consequentialist motives (such as teaching transgressors that their behaviour is inappropriate). Here, we investigated whether retributive and consequentialist motives for punishment are present in children approximately between the ages of five and seven. In two preregistered studies (N = 251), children were given the opportunity to punish a transgressor at a cost to themselves. Punishment either exclusively satisfied retributive motives by only inflicting harm on the transgressor, or additionally satisfied consequentialist motives by teaching the transgressor a lesson. We found that children punished when doing so satisfied only retributive motives, and punished considerably more when doing so also satisfied consequentialist motives. Together, these findings provide evidence for the presence of both retributive and consequentialist motives in young children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Marshall
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
| | - Daniel A Yudkin
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.,Social and Behavioral Science Initiative, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
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14
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Myslinska Szarek K, Bocian K, Baryla W, Wojciszke B. Partner in crime: Beneficial cooperation overcomes children's aversion to antisocial others. Dev Sci 2020; 24:e13038. [PMID: 32931056 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13038] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2020] [Revised: 09/04/2020] [Accepted: 09/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Young children display strong aversion toward antisocial individuals, but also feel responsible for joint activities and express a strong sense of group loyalty. This paper aims to understand how beneficial cooperation with an antisocial partner shapes preschoolers' attitudes, preferences, and moral judgments concerning antisocial individuals. We argue that although young children display a strong aversion to antisocial characters, children may overcome this aversion when they stand to personally benefit. In Study 1a (N = 62), beneficial cooperation with an antisocial partner resulted in the children's later preference for the antisocial partner over the neutral partner. Study 1b (N = 91) replicated this effect with discrete measurement of liking (resource distribution) and showed that children rewarded more and punished less the antisocial partner in the beneficial cooperation setting. In Study 2, (N = 58), children's aversion to an antisocial in-group member decreased when the cooperation benefited other in-group members. Finally, in Study 3 (N = 62), when children passively observed the antisocial individual, personal benefits from the antisocial behavior did not change their negative attitude toward the antisocial individual. Overall, beneficial cooperation with the antisocial partner increased the children's liking and preference for the antisocial partner, but did not affect the children's moral judgments. Presented evidence suggests that by the age of 4, children develop a strong obligation to collaborate with partners who help them to acquire resources-even when these partners harm third parties, which children recognize as immoral.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Konrad Bocian
- Department of Psychology in Sopot, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sopot, Poland.,School of Psychology, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - Wieslaw Baryla
- Department of Psychology in Sopot, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sopot, Poland
| | - Bogdan Wojciszke
- Department of Psychology in Sopot, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Sopot, Poland
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15
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Bernhard RM, Martin JW, Warneken F. Why do children punish? Fair outcomes matter more than intent in children's second- and third-party punishment. J Exp Child Psychol 2020; 200:104909. [PMID: 32866656 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104909] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2019] [Revised: 01/13/2020] [Accepted: 05/13/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Humans punish fairness violations both as victims and as impartial third parties, which can maintain cooperative behavior. However, it is unknown whether similar motivations underlie punishment of unfairness in these two contexts. Here we approached this question by focusing on how both types of punishment develop in children, asking the question: What motivates young children to punish in response to fairness norm violations? We explored two potential factors: the direct experience of unfair outcomes and a partner's fair versus unfair intentions. The participants, 5- and 7-year-olds, were given the chance to engage in both second- and third-party punishment in response to either intended or unintended fairness norm violations in a single paradigm. In both age-groups, children were more likely to punish when they were directly affected by the allocation (second-party punishment) than when they were an uninvolved third party (third-party punishment). Reliable third-party punishment was shown only in the older age-group. Moreover, children's punishment was driven by outcome rather than intent, with equal rates of punishment when unequal outcomes were either the result of chance or the intentional act of another child. These findings suggest that younger children may be mainly motivated to create equal outcomes between themselves and others, whereas older children are motivated to enforce fairness norms as a general principle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Regan M Bernhard
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 01238, USA.
| | - Justin W Martin
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 01238, USA
| | - Felix Warneken
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 01238, USA
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16
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Dunlea JP, Wolle RG, Heiphetz L. Enduring Positivity: Children Of Incarcerated Parents Report More Positive Than Negative Emotions When Thinking about Close Others. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2020. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2020.1797749] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Marshall J, Mermin-Bunnell K, Bloom P. Developing judgments about peers' obligation to intervene. Cognition 2020; 201:104215. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2020.104215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2019] [Revised: 01/27/2020] [Accepted: 01/29/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
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Stavans M, Diesendruck G. Children Hold Leaders Primarily Responsible, Not Entitled. Child Dev 2020; 92:308-323. [PMID: 32725647 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13420] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Do children construe leaders as individuals whose position of power entails primarily more responsibility or more entitlement, compared with nonleaders? To address this question, 5-year-old children (n = 128) heard a story involving a hierarchical dyad (a leader and a nonleader) and an egalitarian dyad (two nonleaders), and then assessed protagonists' relative contributions to a collaborative endeavor (Experiments 1 and 2) or relative withdrawals from a common resource pool earned jointly (Experiment 3). Children expected a leader to contribute more toward a joint goal than its nonleader partner, and to withdraw an equal share (not more) from a common pool. Children thus gave evidence that they construed leaders as more responsible, rather than more entitled, relative to nonleaders.
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Dunlea JP, Heiphetz L. Children's and adults' understanding of punishment and the criminal justice system. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103913] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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Merit overrules theory of mind when young children share resources with others. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0227375. [PMID: 31899918 PMCID: PMC6941925 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/11/2019] [Accepted: 12/17/2019] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Non-windfall approaches to sharing demonstrate pre-schoolers’ sensitivity to merit-based distributions of resources. However, such studies have not considered (1) whether epistemic aspects of task performance, such as the relative accuracy of a co-worker, influences pre-schoolers’ rates of sharing; and (2) how children’s emerging social understanding may impact resource allocations in high- and low-merit situations. These issues are of theoretical importance as they may provide new information about the scope of pre-schooler’s merit-based sharing behaviours. Moreover, as social understanding has been related to both increases and decreases in pre-schoolers’ levels of sharing, providing a merit-based assessment of this relationship would allow for a concurrent assessment of recent conflicting findings. In this study, three- and four-year-olds (N = 131) participated in an unexpected transfer task which was followed by a resource generation picture card naming task with a reliable or unreliable (high- or low-merit) co-worker (a hand puppet). The results showed that children engage in more generous rates of sharing with a high-merit co-worker. This suggests that merit-based sharing is apparent in young children and extends to epistemic aspects of task performance. However, such sharing was constrained by a self-serving bias. Finally, we were not able to detect an effect of children’s performance on the false belief task on sharing behaviours in the high- or low-merit trials, suggesting that these behaviours may not be modulated by social understanding during early childhood.
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Children’s Sense of Fairness as Equal Respect. Trends Cogn Sci 2019; 23:454-463. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2018] [Revised: 02/26/2019] [Accepted: 03/03/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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