Intentions And Emotions In The Life-span Development Of Altruistic Punishment

Altruistic punishment means people punish those who violate social norms, although the punishment is costly for them. Evidence shows that cooperation flourishes if altruistic punishment is possible. This research used ultimatum games to study the life-span development of altruistic punishment and the related influences. The subjects included 8-10 years old children,12-15 years old teenagers,18-28 years old younger adults and older adults over 60 years old. The first study investigated how intentions influenced the altruistic punishment and how it developed with age, and the second study investigated the developmental differences in the role of emotions for altruistic punishment. The main results are as follows.(1) The altruistic punishment behavior was different with age. Children and teenagers performed significantly more altruistic punishments than adults, while the altruistic punishments in older adults were significantly less than in other three age groups.(2) In ultimatum games, the altruistic punishment was influenced by the intention of proposer that responder perceived. People chose the severer punishment when the fair-sharing norm was violated intentionally than it was violated unavoidably.(3) Children based their punishment on the outcome of allocation rather than intention, whereas teenagers, younger and older adults integrated both outcomes and intentions in their punishment.(4) Intention influenced the anger emotion raised in the game. People felt angrier when the fair-sharing norm was violated intentionally than it was violated unavoidably. There was a positive correlation between angry and altruistic punishment. In addition, anger played a mediating role in the relation between intention and punishment.(5) There was a developmental difference in the role of intentions in altruistic punishment. Specifically, anger influenced altruistic punishment the most significantly in children and teenagers, then in younger adults, lastly in older adults.(6) The mediating effect of anger changed with age. In particular, it mediated totally in teenagers and younger adults but worked partly in older adults.