Children’s sociomoral judgements of antisocial but not prosocial others depend on recipients’ past moral behaviour

This study investigated whether recipients’ past moral or immoral behaviour shapes 4-year-olds’ judgements of the agents who either harm or help the recipients. Children (N = 161) watched the agent who either harmed or helped the antisocial, prosocial or neutral recipient. Afterwards, children indicated their sociomoral judgement of the agent’s act, their attitude towards the agent and their perception of the agent’s emotions. Children liked the agent more, ascribed less sadness to the agent, and judged the agent’s actions as less bad when the agent inflicted harm against the antisocial recipient than on the prosocial and neutral recipient. The recipient’s past behaviour did not influence children’s evaluations when the agent helped the recipient. The presented evidence indicates that by the age of 4, children develop the ability to use complex moral reasoning that allows them to monitor whether the harmful behaviour of antisocial others is justified by retaliation for past transgressions.