Children learn what is right or wrong selectively from a legitimate authority’s punishment
‼️Work by Young-eun Lee, Setayesh Radkani & Rebecca Saxe
In sum, "deterrence vs. retribution" may be a false choice. Retributive feelings fuse compensation and deterrence into a single computation for restoring fairness. And this looks universal: a built-in feature of our moral psychology rather than a culturally peculiar norm.
Also consistent with compensatory concerns, Mentawai participants asked that victims be repaid in the currency of their loss—steal a pig, get paid back in pigs, not coconut trees.
But compensation isn't everything. Consistent with deterrence, payments included an additional penalty beyond restitution of the lost resource. As the Mentawai adage goes, sabbek silinia, sabbek tulounia—"one is its exchange, one is its fine." Only accidents required restitution alone.