Toddlers and infants expect individuals to refrain from helping an ingroup victim’s aggressor

Abstract

Adults and older children are more likely to punish a wrongdoer for a moral transgression when the victim belongs to their group. Building on these results, in violation-of-expectation experiments (n= 198), we examined whether 2.5-year-old toddlers (Exps. 1 and 2) and 1-year-old infants (Exps. 3 and 4) would selectively expect an individual in a minimal group to engage in third-party punishment (TPP) for harm to an ingroup victim. We focused on an indirect form of TPP, the withholding of help. To start, children saw a wrongdoer steal a toy from a victim while a bystander watched. Next, the wrongdoer needed assistance with a task, and the bystander either helped or hindered her. The group memberships of the wrongdoer and the victim were varied relative to that of the bystander and were marked with either novel labels (Exps. 1 and 2) or novel outfits (Exps. 3 and 4). When the victim belonged to the same group as the bystander, children expected TPP: At both ages, they detected a violation when the bystander chose to help the wrongdoer. Across experiments, this effect held whether the wrongdoer belonged to the same group as the bystander and the victim or to a different group; it was eliminated when the victim belonged to a different group than the bystander, when groups were not marked, and when either no theft occurred or the wrongdoer was unaware of the theft. Toddlers and infants thus expect individuals to refrain from helping an ingroup victim’s aggressor, providing further evidence for an early-emerging expectation of ingroup support.

Infants expect leaders to right wrongs

“…Together with the present results, these findings support the view that beginning early in life, interventions 1) are expected for leaders who observe within-group transgressions, as their position of leadership protects them somewhat from the risk of retaliation, but 2) are considered optional for nonleaders who observe within-group transgressions and for individuals who observe anonymous transgressions. Second, the results of the nonleader condition also bear on recent findings that 13-and 29-mo-olds expected a nonleader who had observed a transgression against an ingroup victim to engage in indirect third-party punishment toward the wrongdoer, by withholding help (50). Following the transgression, while the nonleader watched, the wrongdoer worked at a task and needed instrumental assistance to complete it.…”

“…This suggested that infants would perceive the wrongdoer and the victim, 2 group members of equal standing, to be entitled to an equal share of the toys, and hence that they would detect a fairness transgression when the wrongdoer took both toys, leaving none for the victim. Finally, there is also evidence that infants aged 12 to 17 mo possess an abstract expectation of ingroup support: For example, individuals in a group are expected to care for each other by refraining from unprovoked harm and by providing assistance when needed (47)(48)(49)(50). This suggested that infants would also perceive an ingroup-support transgression in our events and would be particularly sensitive to the plight of the victim, who was treated unfairly by a member of her own group.…”

Groups as moral boundaries: A developmental perspective

“…When shown instances of one person harming another, both 1-year-olds and 2.5-year-olds expect someone who shares group membership with the victim to harm (i.e., withhold help from) the transgressor in the future (Baillargeon et al, 2015;Ting, He, & Baillargeon, 2019).…”

Memória Ou Metamemória Das Origens?

“…Mesmo que, ao longo de sua história, nossa espécie tenha demonstrado sua capacidade de praticar formas de cooperação aberta , abrangendo a família, o clã, a comunidade ou a nação, a oposição "Nós vs Eles", o que eu chamo de conformação cognitiva do grupo, é sem dúvida um invariante antropológico (BERNHARD et al, 2006;CHOI;BOWLES, 2007). Em geral, os seres humanos têm uma forte propensão a favorecer seu grupo de pertencimento e julgá-lo superior aos outros -ou mais "normal" que os outros -, desde a primeira infância (JIN;BAILLARGEON, 2017;TING et al, 2019) e todos os sexos combinados, embora os homens sejam mais inclinados a isso que as mulheres (ROMANO et al, 2017). Como explicar o significado dessa conformação cognitiva?…”