Three-year-old children intervene in third-party moral transgressions.
Published
Journal Article
We investigated children's moral behaviour in situations in which a third party was harmed (the test case for possession of agent-neutral moral norms). A 3-year-old and two puppets each created a picture or clay sculpture, after which one puppet left the room. In the Harm condition, the remaining (actor) puppet then destroyed the absent (recipient) puppet's picture or sculpture. In a Control condition, the actor acted similarly but in a way that did not harm the recipient. Children protested during the actor's actions, and, upon the recipient's return, tattled on the actor and behaved prosocially towards the recipient more in the Harm than in the Control condition. This is the first study to show that children as young as 3 years of age actively intervene in third-party moral transgressions.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Vaish, A; Missana, M; Tomasello, M
Published Date
- March 2011
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 29 / Pt 1
Start / End Page
- 124 - 130
PubMed ID
- 21288257
Pubmed Central ID
- 21288257
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 2044-835X
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0261-510X
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1348/026151010x532888
Language
- eng