Third-party punishment promotes fairness in children.

Third-party punishment can promote fair behavior. However, the mechanisms by which this happens are unclear. may increase behavior providing direct feedback, helping shape of those punished, or through an influence on reputation, encouraging transgressor to behave appropriately before a third-party audience. Investigating whether and how leads fairness in children during middle childhood-a key developmental period emergence fairness-presents ideal context explore these 2 mechanisms. Six nine-year-old (N = 121) allocated resources between themselves partner forced-choice dictator game. In Direct Feedback condition, third party punished if child chose less option. Reputation merely observed child. Baseline no was present. We find that condition increased relative other conditions, especially among younger children. These results highlight important link and, more broadly, help clarify thereby human cooperation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).