When punishment is emotion-driven: Children's, adolescents', and adults' costly punishment of unfair allocations

Abstract

When do children, adolescents, and adults decide to punish fairness violations? Two studies with 9-year-old children, 13-year-old adolescents, and adults investigated whether the link between unfairness and punishment was mediated by negative emotional reactions (measured through galvanic skin responses and emotion ratings). Study 1 (N = 117) examined this question in the context of second-party punishment, where the punisher is a direct victim of the violation. Study 2 (N = 119) assessed third-party punishment, where the punisher is an observer, unaffected by the violation. In each study, participants were presented with seven distributions of points, which differed in how fairly the points were allocated between a proposer and receiver, and had to decide whether to punish these distributions. Although the unfairness of the distribution strongly influenced second- and third-party punishment in all age groups, the mediating role of emotional appraisals (i.e., galvanic skin responses vs. emotion ratings) depended on whether or not the punisher was personally affected by the violation and age. Thus, negative emotions primarily motivate costly punishment when the punisher is affected by the violation or when an unaffected third-party punisher takes the perspective of the victim of a violation, an ability that develops between childhood and adolescence.