The Role of Negative Emotions and Attentional Control in Children's, Adolescents' and Adults' Punishment

人们的人际行为受到社会和道德规范的约束，违反这些规范往往会受到惩罚。本项目旨在结合发展心理学、实验心理学、社会心理学和实验经济学的研究，研究影响儿童、青少年和成人对违反规范者的惩罚的因素。我们将特别关注负面情绪，如愤怒，如何影响儿童、青少年和成人的惩罚。此外，我们感兴趣的是注意力控制，即将注意力从负面信息和想法中分离出来，如何调节负面情绪何时以及如何影响惩罚。惩罚是道德行为产生和维持的一种机制。研究儿童、青少年和成人的惩罚以及负面情绪在惩罚中的作用，将有助于我们更清楚地了解道德行为是如何在人类个体发生过程中发展起来的。我们将采用两种经常用于研究惩罚的实验经济学范式，即最后通牒博弈和第三方惩罚博弈。最后通牒博弈评估的是第二方惩罚，即个体作为违反规范的直接受害者所受到的惩罚。第三方惩罚博弈衡量的是人们是否愿意通过惩罚违反规范的人来执行规范，即使他们自己没有受到违反规范的影响。这两个博弈都将惩罚作为对违反公平分享准则的反应。这三项研究的参与者包括8岁的儿童、14岁的青少年和本科生。注意控制对负性情绪加工和惩罚的影响将从两方面进行评估。首先，被测试的年龄组在注意力控制技能上存在差异（通过问卷测量），儿童的注意力控制能力比青少年和成年人弱。第二，对成人样本的注意控制进行实验操作：在有干扰物的情况下，在做出惩罚决定之前，给成人参与者一个30秒的数字跨度任务。在等待条件下，参与者必须等待30秒才能做出惩罚决定。我们将进行六项相互关联的研究，以探讨负面情绪和注意控制在惩罚发展中的作用。研究1a和1b将调查(1)在最后通牒和第三方惩罚游戏中对不公平行为的惩罚是否与皮肤电导反应（一种情绪激活的测量）和负面情绪评分的增加有关；(2)情绪反应性（皮肤电导、情绪评分）与惩罚的关系是否受到注意控制的调节。研究2a和研究2b将考察(1)最后通牒和第三方惩罚博弈中愤怒（由观看电影片段引起）是否影响惩罚；(2)儿童和低注意控制条件下的被试是否比成人、青少年和高注意控制条件下的被试表现出更高的惩罚。研究3a和3b将评估引发的愤怒如何影响第三方惩罚与补偿违规受害者。我们预计(1)与中性情绪相比，愤怒会增加第三方惩罚，减少第三方赔偿；(2)愤怒对惩罚和补偿的影响会受到注意控制的调节。

People's interpersonal behaviour is regulated by social and moral norms, and violations of these norms are often met with punishment. This project seeks to study what affects children's, adolescents', and adults' punishment of norm violators by combining research in developmental, experimental, and social psychology and experimental economics. We will focus particularly on how negative emotions, such as anger, influence punishment in children, adolescents, and adults. Furthermore, we are interested in how attentional control, that is disengaging attention away from negative information and thoughts, moderates when and how negative emotions affect punishment. Punishment is one mechanism responsible for the emergence and maintenance of moral behaviour. Studying children's, adolescents', and adults' punishment and the role of negative emotions in punishment will help us shed more light on how moral behavior develops over human ontogeny.We will employ two experimental economic paradigms often used to study punishment, namely the ultimatum game and the third-party punishment game. The ultimatum game assesses second-party punishment, that is punishment by an individual who is a direct victim of the violation of a norm. The third-party punishment game measures whether people are willing to enforce a norm by punishing a norm violator even if they themselves are not affected by the violation. Both games study punishment as reaction to the violation of norms of fair sharing. Participants in all three studies will consist of 8-year-old children, 14-year-old adolescents, and undergraduate students. The influence of attentional control on negative emotion processing and punishment will be assessed in two ways. First, the age groups tested have been shown to differ in their attentional control skills (as measured by a questionnaire) with children showing weaker attentional control than adolescents and adults. Second, attentional control will be manipulated experimentally in adult samples: In a distractor condition, before making a punishment decision, adult participants will be presented with a digit span task for 30 seconds. In a wait condition, participants will have to wait for 30 seconds before making a punishment decision.We will conduct six interrelated studies to investigate the role of negative emotions and attentional control in the development of punishment. Studies 1a and 1b will investigate (1) whether punishment of unfair behavior in ultimatum and third-party punishment game is associated with an increase in skin conductance responses (a measure of emotional activation) and negative emotional ratings; and (2) whether the relation between emotional reactivity (skin conductance, emotion ratings) and punishment is modulated by attentional control. Studies 2a and 2b will examine (1) whether anger (induced by watching film clips) affects punishment in ultimatum and third-party punishment game; and (2) whether children and participants in a low attentional control condition show higher punishment than adults, adolescents and people in a high attentional control condition. Studies 3a and 3b will assess how induced anger affects third-party punishment versus compensating the victim of a violation. We expect (1) that anger, compared to a neutral mood, will increase third-party punishment and decrease third-party compensation; and (2) that the effect of anger on punishment and compensation will be moderated by attentional control.