Do children and adults take leadership hierarchy into account when evaluating and punishing uncooperative individuals?

Abstract While research on adults has highlighted the relationship between violators' leadership hierarchies and third‐party judgements/punishment behaviours, the developmental origins of these relationships remain unknown. This study addresses this question by examining how children aged 5–10 years ( N = 387, 48.87% females) and adults ( N = 120, 50.83% females) as third parties, evaluate and impose punishments on uncooperative individuals with different statuses (i.e. leader or non‐leader) within a group collaboration context. The results showed that adults evaluated and punished non‐contributing leaders more severely than non‐contributing non‐leaders. Regardless of age, children evaluated non‐contributing leaders and non‐contributing non‐leaders equally negatively. However, as they age, children punish non‐contributing leaders more severely. Around the age of 7.95, children's degree of punishment towards non‐contributing leaders surpasses that directed at non‐leaders. Additionally, compared with younger children, older children and adults mentioned violators' leadership status and the associated leadership responsibilities more frequently in their justifications for punishment behaviour.