At age six, children develop a sense of justice
Young children will pay to watch a puppet being beaten, but only six-year-olds pay more to watch punishment inflicted on a puppet that personally offended them, according to scientists trying to figure out when our sense of fairness first develops.
In a beautifully macabre study published today in Nature Human Behaviour, 72 children aged four to six individually interacted with puppets in a miniature theater. One of the puppets gave the child a toy, while the other offered the toy and then withheld it. Next, a third puppet appeared onstage with a large stick and proceeded to beat whichever puppet was still onstage (this alternated based on the child) while it made crying sounds.
After a little while, the curtain fell and it was time to...