How retributive motives shape the emergence of third-party punishment across intergroup contexts

Abstract

This study examines how retributive motives—the desire to punish for the purpose of inflicting harm in the absence of future benefits—shape third-party punishment behavior across intergroup contexts. Six- to nine-year-olds (N = 151, M_age = 8.00, SD_age = 1.15; 54% White, 18% mixed ethnicities, 17% Asian American; 46% female; from the USA) could punish ingroup, outgroup, or non-group transgressors by removing positive resources and allocating negative ones. Both punishments were described as retributive, yet allocating negative resources was perceived as more retributive than removing positive ones. We predicted that children would punish outgroups more so than ingroups and that this effect would be especially pronounced when punishment is perceived as particularly retributive. The results did not align with this prediction; instead, children similarly punished all agents.