Preschoolers Focus on Others' Intentions When Forming Sociomoral Judgments.

ABSTRACT: Many studies suggest that preschoolers initially privilege outcome over intention in their moral judgments. The present findings reveal that, in contrast, even younger preschoolers can privilege intentions when evaluating characters who successfully or unsuccessfully help or hinder a third party in achieving its goal. Following a live-action puppet show originally created for infant populations, children made a forced-choice social judgment (which puppet was liked) and two forced-choice moral judgments (which puppet was nicer, which puppet should be punished), and were asked to explain their punishment allocations. In two experiments (N = 195), 3- and 4-year-olds evaluated characters with distinct intentions to help or to hinder who were associated with either positive or negative o

SUBMITTER: Van de Vondervoort JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6176058 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature