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When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Zhao, X; Kushnir, T
Published in: Developmental science
January 2023

Recent work identified a shift in judgments of moral praiseworthiness that occurs late in development: adults recognize the virtue of moral actions that involve resolving an inner conflict between moral desires and selfish desires. Children, in contrast, praise agents who do the right thing in the absence of inner conflict. This finding stands in contrast with other work showing that children incorporate notions of cost and effort into their social reasoning. Using a modified version of Starmans and Bloom's (2016) vignettes, we show that understanding the virtue of costly moral action precedes understanding the virtue of resolving inner conflict. In two studies (N = 192 children, range = 4.00-9.95 years; and N = 193 adults), we contrasted a character who paid a personal cost (psychological in Study 1, physical in Study 2) to perform a moral action with another who acted morally without paying a cost. We found a developmental progression; 8- and 9-year-old children and adults recognized the praiseworthiness of moral actions that are psychologically or physically costly. Six- and 7-year-old children only recognized the praiseworthiness of moral actions that are physically costly, but not actions that are psychologically costly. Moreover, neither adults nor children inferred that paying a cost to act morally required having a moral desire or resolving inner conflict. These results suggest that both adults and children conceptualize obligation as a direct motivational force on actions. They further suggest that costly choice-a hallmark of moral agency-is implicated in judgments of praiseworthiness early in development.

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Published In

Developmental science

DOI

EISSN

1467-7687

ISSN

1363-755X

Publication Date

January 2023

Volume

26

Issue

1

Start / End Page

e13257

Related Subject Headings

  • Virtues
  • Problem Solving
  • Motivation
  • Morals
  • Judgment
  • Humans
  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • Child
  • Adult
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
 

Citation

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MLA
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Zhao, X., & Kushnir, T. (2023). When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness. Developmental Science, 26(1), e13257. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13257
Zhao, Xin, and Tamar Kushnir. “When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness.Developmental Science 26, no. 1 (January 2023): e13257. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13257.
Zhao, Xin, and Tamar Kushnir. “When it's not easy to do the right thing: Developmental changes in understanding cost drive evaluations of moral praiseworthiness.Developmental Science, vol. 26, no. 1, Jan. 2023, p. e13257. Epmc, doi:10.1111/desc.13257.
Journal cover image

Published In

Developmental science

DOI

EISSN

1467-7687

ISSN

1363-755X

Publication Date

January 2023

Volume

26

Issue

1

Start / End Page

e13257

Related Subject Headings

  • Virtues
  • Problem Solving
  • Motivation
  • Morals
  • Judgment
  • Humans
  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • Child
  • Adult
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology