Preschoolers’ resource allocations align with their normative judgments

Paulus, Markus; Nöth, Antonia; Wörle, Monika

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2018.05.001

Cited by 17 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This explanation corroborates theoretical accounts stating that differently valenced emotions arise depending on the degree to which children follow their moral standards (Ongley & Malti, ). In addition, this finding extends recent studies that reveal moral evaluations and behavior (Paulus et al, ) as well as moral emotions and behavior (Wu et al, ) to be connected by demonstrating a similar link between evaluations and emotions.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…A first pressing question that arises here is whether children's emotions also relate to their reasoning about their allocation decisions, as social domain theory asserts (Turiel, ), or only to their actual distribution behavior (e.g., do children who reason about equality report different emotions than children reasoning about equity)? This is especially important as recent work already points to a similar link between preschoolers' moral evaluations (e.g., judgments) and behavior (Paulus, Nöth, & Wörle, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Equality, equity, or inequality duplication? How preschoolers distribute necessary and luxury resources between rich and poor others

et al. 2019

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The present study investigated preschoolers' multiple sociomoral considerations (equality, equity, and perpetuating inequality) in a third‐party context of social inequality. Using a resource allocation task involving one wealthy and one poor character, we examined how 3–5‐year‐old children (N = 100) allocated either necessary (must‐have) or luxury (nice‐to‐have) resources. In addition, preschoolers' emotions, reasoning, and judgments were assessed. Results indicated that preschoolers distributing more resources to wealthy than poor others displayed a decision‐making pattern distinct from preschoolers allocating equally or equitably and largely matched the numeric proportions of the inequality in their allocations. In addition, preschoolers were sensitive to the differential implications of necessary and luxury resources, thereby considering others' needs in their moral decisions. Emotions were related to reasoning, but did not mediate the relationship between judgment and behavior. These findings demonstrate novel aspects of preschoolers' multifaceted moral considerations in the context of resource inequality.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Equality, equity, or inequality duplication? How preschoolers distribute necessary and luxury resources between rich and poor others

et al. 2019

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“…These results support the notion that children are reasoning about both remorse and intent in their evaluations, and aligns with previous work suggesting children's evaluations of others are often internally consistent with their behaviors (Paulus et al, 2018).…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 89%

Children are more forgiving of accidental harms across development

Amir

Ahl

Parsons

et al. 2021

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Forgiveness is a powerful feature of human social life, allowing for the restoration of positive, cooperative relationships. Despite its importance, we know relatively little about how forgiveness develops in early life and the features that shape forgiveness decisions. Here, we investigate forgiveness behavior in children between the ages of 5 and 10 (N = 257) from the United States, varying transgressor intent and remorse in a behavioral task that pits punishment against forgiveness. We find that baseline levels of forgiveness are high, suggesting children assume the best of transgressors in the absence of information about intent and remorse. We also find age-related increases in sensitivity to intent, but not remorse, such that older children are more likely to forgive accidental transgressions. As forgiveness is an important tool in the human social toolkit, exploring the ways in which this ability develops across age can help us better understand the early roots of human cooperation.

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“…Additionally, preschoolers attribute more guilt to characters whom they do not like (Dumhan & Emory, 2014). More importantly, recent research has shown that preschoolers' patterns of resource distribution follow their normative views (Paulus, Nöth, & Wörle, 2018). Because the distribution of resources is a frequently used indirect measurement of liking (Plötner, Over, Carpenter, & Tomasello, 2015;Vogelsang & Tomasello, 2016), these results suggest that children's attitudes follow their moral judgements.…”

Section: The Pre S Ent S Tudymentioning

confidence: 77%

Children’s sociomoral judgements of antisocial but not prosocial others depend on recipients’ past moral behaviour

Bocian

Szarek

2020

Social Development

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This study investigated whether recipients' past moral or immoral behaviour shapes 4-year-olds' judgements of the agents who either harm or help the recipients. Children (N = 161) watched the agent who either harmed or helped the antisocial, prosocial, or neutral recipient. Afterwards, children indicated their sociomoral judgement of the agent's act, their attitude towards the agent and their perception of the agent's emotions. Children liked the agent more, ascribed less sadness to the agent, and judged the agent's actions as less bad when the agent inflicted harm against the antisocial recipient than on the prosocial and neutral recipient. The recipient's past behaviour did not influence children's evaluations when the agent helped the recipient. The presented evidence indicates that by the age of 4, children develop the ability to use complex moral reasoning that allows them to monitor whether the harmful behaviour of antisocial others is justified by retaliation for past transgressions.

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Preschoolers’ resource allocations align with their normative judgments

Cited by 17 publications

References 24 publications

Equality, equity, or inequality duplication? How preschoolers distribute necessary and luxury resources between rich and poor others

Equality, equity, or inequality duplication? How preschoolers distribute necessary and luxury resources between rich and poor others

Children are more forgiving of accidental harms across development

Children’s sociomoral judgements of antisocial but not prosocial others depend on recipients’ past moral behaviour

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