How do children intervene in transgressions? The influence of apology and intervention costs

When norms for maintaining cooperative networks are violated, humans try to cope in various ways. However, knowledge is limited regarding how children respond to transgressions. Across two experiments, we examined how 82 six-year-olds, predominantly of Japanese ethnicity (97.6%), choose among punishment, forgiveness, and non-intervention when addressing transgressions from a third-party perspective using a novel paradigm. In addition, we examined how an apology from the transgressor and intervention costs influence children's moral intervention behaviors. In Experiment 1, Japanese children (N = 41) were presented with a transgressor who either did or did not apologize. Contrary to the previous assumption that children are highly inclined to moral intervention even when it is costly, punishment was the least selected option and non-intervention was the most selected. Children who initially showed reluctance to intervene in transgressions then flexibly adjusted their choice to show forgiveness in response to the transgressor's apology. In Experiment 2, as in Experiment 1, Japanese children (N = 41) avoided costly punishment and predominantly chose non-intervention. However, when punishment involved no personal cost, children were more likely to choose punishment and less likely to choose no intervention. These findings demonstrate that, when presented with multiple options, 6-year-olds engage less actively in punishment or forgiveness than previous work has suggested, and their intervention strategies are sensitive to social cues and personal costs. This research provides novel insights into the development of moral decision-making in early childhood.