Abstract:We ask whether moral judgment in preschool children observes a "means principle." It is well established that young children consider both the consequences and the goals of actions when making moral judgments; much less studied is the question of whether the means used to attain a given goal also matter. By obtaining preschoolers' judgments regarding when, if ever, it is permissible for 1 person to harm another as a means, we show, across 2 experiments, that children (N = 200 across 2 studies; M age = 5.1 yrs.… Show more
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