Effect of cognitive empathy on group preference in third-party punishment among senior primary school children
In the role of a third party,children exhibit group preferences when enforcing fairness norms,indicating distinct punishments for in-groups and out-groups.In later stages of childhood,a heightened awareness of fairness norms develops and children encounter increasingly complex interpersonal situations.Nevertheless,the developmental trajectory of group preferences in third-party punishment(TPP)in later childhood has not been determined.The literature highlights that empathy is a critical factor underlying such in-group favoritism in punishment behavior.This study aimed to investigate the developmental trajectory of in-group favoritism in children's TPP and explore how cognitive empathy affects costly punishment behavior in TPP among senior primary school children.This study used a modified Third-Party Dictator Game(TP-DG)to measure punishment responses to unfairness among fourth-,fifth-,and sixth-grade students.The TP-DG task included three players:Player A is a distributor who decides how to allocate between themselves and Player B;Player B must accept Player A's allocation and thereafter is a recipient;Player C is a third-party observer who learns about unfair allocations(90∶10)and then decides whether they would punish the distributor and how much money to deduct as punishment.In this study,there was only unilateral knowledge of group membership;that is,the children only knew the identity of one player.In addition,we assessed the children's cognitive empathy.Two tasks focusing on different game roles(distributor and recipient)were designed.In Task1,the distributor's relation to participants was manipulated as in-group and out-group members,while the identity of the recipient was unknown.In Task 2,we manipulated the recipient's relation to the group,while the identity of the distributor remained unknown.Participants were 320 children from China,including 106 participants(52 females,mean age=9.80 years old,SD=0.47 years old)in the fourth-grade bracket,106 participants(56 females,mean age=10.82 years old,SD=0.43 years old)in the fifth-grade bracket,and 108 participants(56 females,mean age=11.68 years old,SD=0.47 years old)in the sixth-grade bracket.Both Tasks 1 and 2 showed in-group favoritism in TPP of senior primary school children.In particular,third-party observers performed fewer punishments towards the in-group member than toward the outgroup member who acted as a distributor,and the punishment to the distributor when on behalf of the in-group member was greater than when on behalf of the outgroup member.In addition,in-group favoritism decreased from fourth-and fifth-grade to sixth-grade.Cognitive empathy predicted punishment behavior in ingroup distributors in fourth-grade and fifth-grade and cognitive empathy predicted punishment behavior in distributors when the recipient was an outgroup member in fourth-grade.The present study's findings revealed in-group favoritism in TPP of unfairness among Chinese senior primary school children.Children were more tolerant of in-group distributors and showed more favoritism to in-group victims.The effect of cognitive empathic ability on in-group favoritism of TPP was also identified.This study deepens the understanding of the development of in-group favoritism and the mechanisms involved in the influence of empathy on punishment behavior in TPP among older children.
third party punishmentcognitive empathyin-group preferencechildren
万方数据
维普
