Group membership and adolescents' third-party punishment: a moderated chain mediation model

Zhen Zhang; Menghui Li; Qiyun Liu; Chao Chen; Chunhui Qi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1251276

Group membership and adolescents' third-party punishment: a moderated chain mediation model

Front Psychol. 2023 Dec 11:14:1251276. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1251276. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Zhen Zhang^{1

2}, Menghui Li³, Qiyun Liu¹, Chao Chen⁴, Chunhui Qi¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Education, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China.
² Faculty of Education, Henan University, Kaifeng, China.
³ Mental Health Education Center, Nanyang Medical College, Nanyang, China.
⁴ Zhumadian Basic Teaching Research Office, Zhumadian, China.

Abstract

Third-party punishment (TPP) reflects people's social preference for fairness norms and is fundamental to maintaining fairness norms on a large scale. Several empirical studies have shown that the offender's group membership impacts TPP, but the detailed mechanisms have yet to be fully elucidated. The current study used the third-party punishment game task to explore the relationship between group membership, perceived unfairness, anger, and adolescents' TPP. A total of 306 teenagers aged 12 to 15 were chosen as subjects through cluster sampling. The results showed that group membership (classmate vs. stranger) and gender can affect adolescents' TPP together, which manifests as adolescents enacting significantly harsher punishments on strangers than on classmates, especially for boys. Group membership indirectly affects TPP through the mediating effects of perceived unfairness, anger and through a chain mediation of perceived unfairness and anger. Moreover, gender positively moderate the relationship between group membership and perceived unfairness. Specifically, group membership significantly affects boys' perceived unfairness, but cannot predict girls' perceived unfairness. The above results can be used to guide adolescents toward appropriate justice concepts and moral awareness, thus enhancing TPP.

Keywords: adolescents; anger; group membership; third-party punishment; unfair perception.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [32000754], the Youth Foundation of the Ministry of Education of Humanities and Social Science Project of China [20YJC190030], the Philosophy and Social Science Foundation of Henan Province of China [2021CJY052], the Science and Technology Research Project of Henan Province [222102320386], and the Teacher Education Reform Project of Henan Province [2022-JSJYYB-011].