TY - JOUR
T1 - Children's judgments of psychological harm in normal and noncanonical situations
AU - Helwig, Charles C.
AU - Zelazo, Philip David
AU - Wilson, Mary
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - This study investigated children's (3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds) and adults' (total N = 92) integrator, of information about intentions, acts, and outcomes in moral judgments of psychological harm. Behavioral and emotional predictions and judgments of act acceptability and punishment were made under normal and noncanonical causal conditions. Participants at all ages judged it wrong to inflict negative psychological reactions of fear or embarassment on unwilling participants, even when these reactions were idiosyncratic or noncanonical. When assigning punishment, younger children tended to use an outcome rule, whereas older participants were more likely to use an intention rule or a conjunction rule (if outcome is negative and intention is negative, then punish). The results show that children as young as 3 years are able to take into account other people's idiosyncratic perspectives when making moral judgments of psychological harm.
AB - This study investigated children's (3-, 5-, and 7-year-olds) and adults' (total N = 92) integrator, of information about intentions, acts, and outcomes in moral judgments of psychological harm. Behavioral and emotional predictions and judgments of act acceptability and punishment were made under normal and noncanonical causal conditions. Participants at all ages judged it wrong to inflict negative psychological reactions of fear or embarassment on unwilling participants, even when these reactions were idiosyncratic or noncanonical. When assigning punishment, younger children tended to use an outcome rule, whereas older participants were more likely to use an intention rule or a conjunction rule (if outcome is negative and intention is negative, then punish). The results show that children as young as 3 years are able to take into account other people's idiosyncratic perspectives when making moral judgments of psychological harm.
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U2 - 10.1111/1467-8624.00266
DO - 10.1111/1467-8624.00266
M3 - Article
C2 - 11280490
AN - SCOPUS:0035530256
SN - 0009-3920
VL - 72
SP - 66
EP - 81
JO - Child Development
JF - Child Development
IS - 1
ER -