Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
Social and Behavioral Science Initiative, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Nat Hum Behav. 2021 Mar;5(3):361-368. doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-00975-9. Epub 2020 Nov 23.
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.
成年人惩罚道德违规行为，既是为了满足报应性动机（例如，希望反社会的人得到应有的惩罚），也是为了满足后果主义动机（例如，让违规者认识到自己的行为是不恰当的）。在这里，我们研究了在大约五到七岁的儿童中是否存在惩罚的报应性和后果主义动机。在两项预先注册的研究中（N=251），儿童有机会在自己付出代价的情况下惩罚违规者。惩罚要么仅仅通过对违规者造成伤害来完全满足报应性动机，要么通过给违规者一个教训来额外满足后果主义动机。我们发现，当这样做时，儿童会受到惩罚，而当这样做也满足后果主义动机时，他们会受到更严厉的惩罚。总的来说，这些发现为年幼的孩子同时存在报应性和后果主义动机提供了证据。
