Study: Awareness shapes fairness: How children’s emotion attributions reflect sensitivity to unequal punishment (DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106553)
Study: Awareness shapes fairness: How children’s emotion attributions reflect sensitivity to unequal punishment (DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2026.106553)
Children might feel relieved when their teacher spares them from punishment and allows them to go to recess despite sneaking in a cell phone or running in the hallway.
That relief might fade, however, when they learn that a classmate did not get off as easily for the same behavior. Their initial happiness may then become mixed with guilt over receiving lenient but unfair treatment.
New University of Michigan research shows that children ages 6 to 9 consider not only whether others are punished for their misdeeds, but whether punishment was applied equally.
When hearing stories about students who broke school rules, they were keenly aware of how unequal punishment might feel. Being punished for a misdeed is one thing, but learning that others have been spared makes it even worse, the researchers noted.
And the reverse is true too: When one student is spared from punishment while others are not, their luck might be mixed with feelings of guilt about having gotten away.
The study offers insight into how children develop an understanding of fairness and other people’s emotions. In addition, the findings could have implications for how parents, teachers, and other adults approach discipline.
Lead author Katarzyna Myślińska Szarek, a former postdoc scholar at U-M, collaborated on the study with Felix Warneken, U-M professor of psychology.
They first asked children in the United States and Poland to predict how someone would feel after breaking a rule and either being punished or avoiding punishment. As expected, children generally thought punishment would make someone sad and escaping punishment would make someone happy.
But their answers changed when they learned that another person had broken the same rule and received a different consequence. Children then expected both people to experience mixed emotions.
They thought a punished person might feel sad but also relieved. At the same time, someone who escaped punishment might feel happy but also guilty, particularly after learning that another person had been punished for the same offense.
“The findings suggest that children understand that learning about unequal treatment can change how someone feels about an outcome,” Warneken said.
Children strongly favor equal punishment
The children also showed a strong preference for equal consequences. In situations involving unequal punishment, 93% chose an option that would restore equality, indicating that children viewed equal treatment as important.
The researchers also found that the first punishment influenced what children thought should happen to a second person who committed the same offense. If the first person received a particular consequence, most of the children expected the second person to receive the same one. The finding suggests that adults’ initial responses to rule violations may establish expectations for what children consider fair.
Getting away with something can come with guilt
The study also challenges the idea that children automatically assume someone who avoids punishment will feel good about it. When a person escaped punishment while another person received a consequence for the same offense, children were more likely to attribute guilt to the person who got off.
At the same time, children often attributed relief to those who were punished. That suggests they may see consequences as more than simply something unpleasant; punishment can also provide a sense that wrongdoing has been rectified.
What children notice about discipline
Children pay close attention to how adults enforce rules. If two children do the same thing but receive different consequences, they may see the situation as unfair—even when one child benefits, the researchers said.
“That could be important in classrooms and families, where adults sometimes make exceptions because of circumstances surrounding a particular incident,” said Myślińska Szarek, who is now a psychologist at SWPS University in Poland.
Children consider not only what punishment someone receives, but whether they know they were treated differently. By middle childhood, they’re not just keeping track of who is in trouble—they’re watching for fairness, according to the study.
Source: https://news.umich.edu/thats-not-fair-young-kids-understand-when-punishment-is-unequal/