New work by a University of Virginia psychologist finds that the seeds of personal and social morality emerge as early as 5 years of age.

Amrisha Vaish, assistant professor of psychology, led the study, “Preschoolers Value Those Who Sanction Non-Cooperators,” published in the journal “Cognition.” Specifically, the study found that 5-year-old children recognize and value individuals who dissuade others from breaking moral norms.

Vaish and her team showed 4- and 5-year-olds two different videos. In the first, person A transgressed against person B, for example by breaking person B’s toy. Person C observed the transgression and scolded the transgressor, person A, for her harmful behavior.

The second video featured the same scenario, with one important difference. Person C was replaced with person D, who did not scold person A for breaking the toy.

The 4- and 5-year-old children were then asked to respond to some questions about person C, the enforcer of the moral norm, and person D, the non-enforcer.

“Who did the right thing?”

“Whom would you prefer to play with?”

“Who do you not like so much?”

The children were also given cloth flowers to distribute between person C and person D in order to examine whether children reward enforcers with material resources.