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, Mage = 8.00, SDage = 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.

中文翻译：

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报应动机如何影响群体间第三方惩罚的出现

本研究探讨了报应性动机（在没有未来利益的情况下为了造成伤害而进行惩罚的愿望）如何在跨群体背景下塑造第三方惩罚行为。六至九岁儿童（氮= 151，中号年龄= 8.00，标准差年龄= 1.15； 54% 白人，18% 混血儿，17% 亚裔美国人； 46% 女性；来自美国的）可以通过消除积极资源并分配消极资源来惩罚群体内、群体外或非群体的违规者。这两种惩罚都被描述为报复性的，但分配负面资源被认为比消除积极资源更具报复性。我们预测，儿童对外群体的惩罚会比对内群体的惩罚更多，并且当惩罚被认为是特别报应性时，这种效应会特别明显。结果与这一预测不一致；相反，孩子们同样惩罚了所有特工。