Social norms and cultural diversity in the development of third-party punishment

Human cooperation is likely supported by our tendency to punish
selfishness in others. Social norms play an important role in motivating
third-party punishment, and also in explaining societal differences in
prosocial behavior. However, there has been little work directly linking
social norms to the development of third-party punishment across
societies. In this study, we explored the impact of normative information
on the development of third-party punishment in 603 children aged 4-14
years, across six diverse societies. Children began to perform third-party
punishment during middle childhood, and the developmental trajectories of
this behavior were similar across societies. We also found that social
norms began to influence the likelihood of performing third-party
punishment 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 behavior. These findings
support the view that third-party punishment 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 third-party
punishment and prosociality.