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Young children's moral judgments depend on the social relationship between agents

Publication ,  Journal Article
Mammen, M; Köymen, B; Tomasello, M
Published in: Cognitive Development
January 1, 2021

Moral judgments can vary depending on the social relationship between agents. We presented 4- and 6-year-old peer dyads (N = 128) with stories, in which a parent (parent condition) or a peer protagonist (peer condition) faced a child in need of help (e.g., the child is thirsty). The dyads had to decide whether the protagonist helped at a cost (e.g., by giving up their water) or not. 6-year-olds expected a parent to help their child more than they expected a child to help their peer. Moreover, children justified their expectations more often with normative statements (e.g., “She has to help”) in the parent condition than in the peer condition. Thus, refusal to help a child was more acceptable coming from a peer than from a parent. The results suggest that young children take into account multiple perspectives and form different normative expectations for different social agents when making moral judgments.

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Published In

Cognitive Development

DOI

ISSN

0885-2014

Publication Date

January 1, 2021

Volume

57

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
 

Citation

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Mammen, M., Köymen, B., & Tomasello, M. (2021). Young children's moral judgments depend on the social relationship between agents. Cognitive Development, 57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100973
Mammen, M., B. Köymen, and M. Tomasello. “Young children's moral judgments depend on the social relationship between agents.” Cognitive Development 57 (January 1, 2021). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100973.
Mammen M, Köymen B, Tomasello M. Young children's moral judgments depend on the social relationship between agents. Cognitive Development. 2021 Jan 1;57.
Mammen, M., et al. “Young children's moral judgments depend on the social relationship between agents.” Cognitive Development, vol. 57, Jan. 2021. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2020.100973.
Mammen M, Köymen B, Tomasello M. Young children's moral judgments depend on the social relationship between agents. Cognitive Development. 2021 Jan 1;57.
Journal cover image

Published In

Cognitive Development

DOI

ISSN

0885-2014

Publication Date

January 1, 2021

Volume

57

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5205 Social and personality psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1702 Cognitive Sciences
  • 1701 Psychology
  • 0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing