Punishment or Restoration? The role of group bias and harsh nurturing on children's preference

The preference for a retributive or restorative response to injustice has been a topic of interest in conflict resolution research. The role of group affiliation and parental practices in the development of a justice orientation preference remains unclear. The present study investigated 7- to 11-year-old (total n = 64) children's restoration behaviors when they were third-party bystanders of transgressions. In our experiment, after assigning the participants to a certain group affiliation condition (ingroup or outgroup), we showed stories through vignettes that portrayed a distributive transgression. We used semantic differentials and questionnaires to inquire about the preference between justice types and child authoritarianism respectively. Separately, we collected the severity and frequency of corporal punishment scores from their caretakers. We found that children preferred restoration over retribution. Third-party restoration behavior was influenced by group bias in that children intended to be involved in more complex restoration mechanisms with ingroup transgressors than outgroup ones. On the other hand, we found that child authoritarianism behaved independently of the severity or frequency of corporal punishment. Lastly, we found that children´s retributive behavior was independent of their authoritarianism. Our research challenges the view that punishment is the standard response to transgressions. The importance of diverse behavior options on restoration vs retribution dilemma. As well as group comparison priming influence over group bias appearance. Age-related implications for the inclusion of authoritarianism as a variable in the role of nurturing on justice preference development are discussed.