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When Children Treat Condemnation as a Signal: The Costs and Benefits of Condemnation
Author(s) -
Hok Hannah,
Martin Alia,
Trail Zachary,
Shaw Alex
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.13323
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , social psychology
Condemnation is ubiquitous in the social world and adults treat condemnation as a costly signal. We explore when children begin to treat condemnation as a signal by presenting 4‐ to 9‐year‐old children ( N = 435) with stories involving a condemner of stealing and a noncondemner. Children were asked to predict who would be more likely to steal as well as who should be punished more harshly for stealing. In five studies, we found that 7‐ to 9‐year‐old children treat condemnation as a signal—thinking that a condemner is less likely to steal and should be punished more harshly if caught hypocritically stealing later. We discuss the implications of these results for children’s emerging understanding of signaling and moral condemnation.