Citation

Will GJ, Crone EA, van den Bos W, Güroğlu B. Dev. Psychol. 2013; 49(12): 2236-2244.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/a0032299

PMID

23544860

Abstract

This study examined punishment of excluders and compensation of victims after observing an instance of social exclusion at various phases of adolescent development. Participants (n = 183; age 9 to 22 years) were first included in a virtual ball-tossing game, Cyberball, and then observed the exclusion of a peer. Subsequently, they played economic games in which they divided money between themselves and the including players, the excluders, and the victim. The results demonstrate a gradual age-related increase in money given to the victim from age 9 to 22 and a gradual decrease in money allocated to the excluders from age 9 to 16 with an increase in 22-year-olds. Affective perspective-taking predicted both compensation of the victim and punishment of the excluders. Taken together these results show that across adolescence individuals sacrifice an increasingly bigger share of their own resources to punish excluders and to compensate victims and that taking the perspective of the victim enhances these decisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Language: en