Children learn what is right or wrong selectively from a legitimate authority’s punishment.

Children must learn the norms of their society. One source of information is observing parents, teachers and other authorities to see which behaviors they punish. We test the hypothesis that young children selectively learn that punished actions are wrong, only when they deem the punisher to be legitimate. Across three pre-registered studies, 6- to 11-year-old children (n=196) in the United States heard vignettes in which an authority decided whether to punish another character for doing an unfamiliar action, and reported how right or wrong the unfamiliar action was. In Studies 1 and 2, older children (age 9-11 years), but not younger children (age 6-8 years), learned norms selectively from punishment by legitimate authorities. In a more familiar context with teachers as authorities (Study 3), younger children also learned selectively from legitimate authorities. We discuss the critical role of legitimacy in children’s learning of socio-moral norms from punishment.