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

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.

1. Understanding human behaviour:
The proposed research is concerned with the ontogenetic development of punishing behaviour and ultimately deals with the mechanisms that support the emergence of human moral behaviour. This proposal thus directly contributes to one of the ESRC's main strategic objectives: Understanding human behaviour and its relationship to social determinants.

2. Interdisciplinarity:
The proposed project interconnects research in developmental, experimental, and social psychology and experimental economics in a novel way. It combines theories and methods from psychology, economics, and evolutionary theory. In that sense, it promises to advance knowledge in these disciplines.

3. Contribution to policy and practice:
The question of how to promote positive social and moral behaviour and discourage anti-social and aggressive behaviour among the UK's children and youth is one of the re-occurring topics among practitioners and government, particularly after the riots in the summer of 2011. In order to design and provide adequate intervention programs for children and adolescents, it is important to understand the factors that affect and support social and moral behaviour across development. Punishment represents one of the key mechanisms through which social and moral norms are maintained in human societies. The results of this research will therefore have direct relevance for teachers, educators, and program developers and administrators who try to foster positive youth development and well-being.
The notion that attentional control processes are central to the regulation of (negative) emotions paves the way for application to societal challenges. Simple interventions, such as inducing attentional load, temporarily block emotion processing and may thus ameliorate negative emotions before they take full swing. Such attentional load manipulations could be successfully applied in legal decision-making.

Exploitation and Application
Impact on the users identified above will be achieved in a number of ways. Teachers, parents, and charitable organizations can access information about our research via the investigators' websites. A summary of the findings and methods of the proposed project will be featured in one of the newsletters sent out by the Developmental Group at the School of Psychology to schools and key stakeholders in the local community. We will present the findings of the proposed project to parents and teachers at the participating schools, and we anticipate writing at least one non-technical report for non-academic beneficiaries. Additionally, our findings will be disseminated at both nationally (BPS Developmental Section) and internationally (EASP, SRCD) recognized conferences and through six peer-reviewed papers.

Collaboration
The investigators have strong collaborative links to psychological, economic, and interdisciplinary research groups in the UK, Europe, North-America, and Asia. The principle investigator has a proven publication track record in investigating the moral and economic behaviour of children and adolescents with these collaborators. All investigators have a proven track record of publishing their research in high-impact journals in developmental, social, experimental, and psychophysiological areas.

Capability
The principal investigator will serve as project leader and coordinator for the proposed research. All investigators and the research assistant will contribute to the dissemination of results as academic papers, non-academic reports, newsletters, and conferences. Furthermore, research findings will be disseminated through the investigators' wide network of national and international collaborators.