Prosociality and morality in children and chimpanzees

The modern study of moral development began with Piaget’s (1932) The Moral Judgment of the Child, which although originally published in the 1930s only became internationally known in the 1960s through its influence on Kohlberg’s theory (e.g. Kohlberg, 1981). Piaget and Kohlberg were both explicit that they were not studying children’s moral motivations or behaviour, but only their judgements, indeed typically judgements about other people’s interactions from a third-party perspective. Much of the work in social domain theory championed by Turiel (1983), though coming from a somewhat different theoretical perspective, also focused on children’s judgements about third parties’ interactions.

Duke Scholars

Author Michael Tomasello Psychology & Neuroscience