RT Journal Article
T1 Social norms and cultural diversity in the development of third-party punishment
A1 House, Bailey R.
A1 Kanngiesser, Patricia
A1 Barret, H. Clark
A1 Yilmaz, Süheyla
A1 Smith, Andrew Marcus
A1 Sebastián Enesco, Carla
A1 Erut, Alejandro
A1 Silk, Joan B.
AB Human cooperation is probably supported by our tendency to punish selfishness in others. Social norms play an important role in motivating third-party punishment (TPP), and also in explaining societal differences in prosocial behaviour. However, there has been little work directly linking social norms to the development of TPP across societies. In this study, we explored the impact of normative information on the development of TPP in 603 children aged 4–14, across six diverse societies. Children began to perform TPP during middle childhood, and the developmental trajectories of this behaviour were similar across societies. We also found that social norms began to influence the likelihood of performing TPP during middle childhood in some of these societies. Norms specifying the punishment of selfishness were generally more influential than norms specifying the punishment of prosocial behaviour. These findings support the view that TPP of selfishness is important in all societies, and its development is shaped by a shared psychology for responding to normative information. Yet, the results also highlight the important role that children's prior knowledge of local norms may play in explaining societal variation in the development of both TPP and prosociality.
PB Royal Society Publishing
YR 2020
FD 2020-03-25
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/129628
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/129628
LA eng
NO Bailey R. House, Patricia Kanngiesser, H. Clark Barrett, Süheyla Yilmaz, Andrew Marcus Smith, Carla Sebastian-Enesco, Alejandro Erut, Joan B. Silk; Social norms and cultural diversity in the development of third-party punishment. Proc Biol Sci 1 April 2020; 287 (1925): 20192794. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2019.2794
NO John Templeton Foundation
NO Volkswagen Foundation
DS Docta Complutense
RD 18 mar 2026