Do children and adults take leadership hierarchy into account when evaluating and punishing uncooperative individuals?

Abstract

While research on adults has highlighted the relationship between violators' leadership hierarchies and third-party judgements/punishment behaviours, the developmental origins of these relationships remain unknown. This study addresses this question by examining how children aged 5-10 years (N = 387, 48.87% females) and adults (N = 120, 50.83% females) as third parties, evaluate and impose punishments on uncooperative individuals with different statuses (i.e. leader or non-leader) within a group collaboration context. The results showed that adults evaluated and punished non-contributing leaders more severely than non-contributing non-leaders. Regardless of age, children evaluated non-contributing leaders and non-contributing non-leaders equally negatively. However, as they age, children punish non-contributing leaders more severely. Around the age of 7.95, children's degree of punishment towards non-contributing leaders surpasses that directed at non-leaders. Additionally, compared with younger children, older children and adults mentioned violators' leadership status and the associated leadership responsibilities more frequently in their justifications for punishment behaviour.