Three- and five-year-olds’ restorative intervention in moral transgressions

Abstract

The present study applied an action-based paradigm to investigate young Chinese children’s sense of restorative justice in moral transgressions. A total of 49 3-year-olds (Mage = 3.57 years, SD = 0.33, 53% girls) and 48 5-year-olds (Mage = 5.02 years, SD = 0.21, 50% girls) participated in the study. We randomly assigned each child to one of four between-subject treatments (theft, unfairness, loss, and permitted taking) in both second- and third-party conditions. The children’s intervention levels and their spontaneous behavioral and verbal responses were rigorously coded and analyzed. The results indicated that three- and five-year-old children were likely to engage in restorative behavior. These findings basically replicated the results of Riedl and colleagues’ pioneering experiment (2015) conducted in Germany while revealing cultural nuances. The 3-year-olds’ demonstration of a stronger level of intervention than their 5-year-old counterparts constitutes a thought-provoking finding.