Gummerum, M and Lopez-Perez, B. and Van Dijk, Eric and Van Dillen, Lotte F. (2022) Ire and Punishment: Incidental Anger and Costly Punishment in Children, Adolescents, and Adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 218. ISSN 0022-0965 (Accepted for Publication)
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Abstract
Why do children, adolescents, and adults engage in costly punishment to sanction fairness violations? Two studies investigated the differential impact of incidental anger on the costly punishment of 8-year-olds, 13-year-olds, and adults. Focusing on experimentally manipulated incidental anger allows for a causal investigation as to whether and how anger affects costly punishment in these age groups in addition to other motives, such as inequity aversion. Study 1 (N = 210) assessed the effect of incidental anger (vs. a neutral emotion) on second-party punishment, where punishers are direct victims of fairness violations. Study 2 (N = 208) examined third-party punishment, where the punisher is an observer, unaffected by the violation. Across ages, incidental anger increased the second-party punishment of unequal but not equal offers. Thus, anger seems to play a causal role in the punishment of unfairness when fairness violations are self-relevant. As predicted, adults’ third-party punishment of unequal offers was higher in the incidental anger than the neutral emotion condition. Children’s third-party punishment of unfairness was not affected by the emotion condition, but incidental anger increased adolescents’ third-party punishment across offers. Overall, our data suggest that the association between anger and costly punishment is based on the self-relevance of the violation. In third-party situations, where unfairness does not affect the self, social-cognitive processes that develop well into adulthood, such as emotional appraisals, might be necessary for third parties to engage in costly punishment.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information and Comments: | NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Vol 218, June 2022: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022096522000054 |
| Keywords: | Second-party punishment; third-party punishment; anger; unfairness; emotional appraisals |
| Faculty / Department: | Faculty of Human and Digital Sciences > School of Psychology |
| Depositing User: | Belen Lopez-Perez |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Jan 2022 12:34 |
| Last Modified: | 31 Jan 2023 01:15 |
| URI: | https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/3471 |
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