Responding to wrongdoing is a core feature of our social lives. Indeed, a central assumption
of modern institutional justice systems is that transgressors should be punished. In this …

Winner of the William James Book Award “Magisterial... Makes an impressive argument that
most distinctly human traits are established early in childhood and that the general …

The relation between empathy and morality is a widely discussed topic. However, previous
discussions mainly focused on whether and how empathy influences moral cognition and …

This study investigated preschool children's normative expectations about the fair
distribution of resources. We examined whether preschool children have a norm of charity …

Research on distributive justice indicates that preschool-age children take issues of equity
and merit into account when distributing desirable items, but that they often prefer to see …

The study examined whether preschool children conceive of empathy-based comforting as
being an obligatory reaction toward others in emotional need. We presented 3-and 5-year …

Cooperative societies rely on reward and punishment for norm enforcement. We examined
the developmental origin of these interventions in the context of distributive fairness: past …

Rewarding someone who defends the victim of an unjust aggression and punishing
someone who chose not to defend her may be very important acts of reciprocation in social …

Children (n= 160, 4‐to 9‐year‐olds; Mage= 6.23 years, SD= 1.46) judged, justified,
attributed emotions, and rated intent for hypothetical physical harm, psychological harm, and …

We report two experiments on children's tendency to enhance their reputations through
communicative acts. In the experiments, 4-year-olds (N= 120) had the opportunity to inform a …