Children Endorse Deterrence Motivations for Third-Party Punishment but Derive Higher Enjoyment From Compensating Victims

Abstract

It is unknown whether children enjoy punishing transgressors and whether they are motivated by retribution, as adults frequently are. Children’s approaches to compensation of victims have been little studied. British, Colombian and Italian 7- to 11-year-old children (N = 123) operated a Justice System in which they viewed different moral transgressions in Minecraft, a globally popular videogame, either face-to-face with an experimenter or over the internet. Children could respond to transgressions by punishing transgressors and compensating victims. The purpose of the system was framed in three ways (between-subject): retribution; deterrence; or compensation. We measured children’s punitive and compensatory tendencies, their enjoyment of punishment and compensation, and their endorsement of retribution vs deterrence as punishment justifications, during and/or after justice administration. Children overwhelmingly endorsed deterrence over retribution as their punishment justification, irrespective of age, country and frame. When asked to reproduce the presented frame, children more reliably reproduced the deterrence than retribution frame. Punishment enjoyment decreased while compensation enjoyment increased over time. Despite enjoying compensation more, children preferentially endorsed punishment over compensation, especially with increasing age (after justice administration) and increasing transgression severity (during justice administration). Reported deterrent justifications, superior reproduction of deterrence framing, lower enjoyment of punishment compared to compensation, and higher endorsement of punishment over compensation together suggest that children’s punishment behaviour is primarily motivated by deterrence and sense of duty. Face-to-face and internet-mediated responses were not distinguishable, suggesting a route to social psychology research with primary school-aged children in times of social distancing.