Re-examining the role of family relationships in structuring perceived helping obligations, and their impact on moral evaluation

McManus, Ryan M.; Mason, Jordyn E.; Young, Liane

doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104182

Cited by 28 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 76 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…if the participant responded "mean" (4-point scale). We included this evaluation item as others have found similar results between obligation and evaluation measures (McManus et al, 2020(McManus et al, , 2021.…”

Section: Procedures and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adults, at least in the United States, consider an unhelpful family member as more morally wrong than an unhelpful stranger (Haidt & Baron, 1996). In addition to these evaluation judgments, adults in the United States also judge individuals who fail to help family members as violating an obligation more so than individuals who fail to help strangers (McManus et al, 2020(McManus et al, , 2021. Interestingly, however, research with college-aged students in India found that they-unlike adults in the United States-do not appear to care as much about social relationships; instead, they consider parents, friends, and strangers as equally obligated to help a person in need (Miller et al, 1990).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

How development and culture shape intuitions about prosocial obligations.

Marshall¹,

Gollwitzer²,

Mermin-Bunnell³

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Do children, like most adults, believe that only kin and close others are obligated to help one another? In two studies (total N = 1140), we examined whether children (~5-to ~10-yos) and adults across five different societies consider social relationship when ascribing prosocial obligations. Contrary to the view that such discriminations are a natural default in human reasoning, younger children in the United States (Studies 1 and 2) and across cultures (Study 2) generally judged everyone-parents, friends, and strangers-as obligated to help someone-inneed. Older children and adults, on the other hand, tended to exhibit more discriminant judgments. They considered parents more obligated to help than friends followed by strangers-though this effect was stronger in some cultures than others. Our findings suggest that children's initial sense of prosocial obligation in social-relational contexts starts out broad and generally becomes more selective over the course of development.

show abstract

Section: Procedures and Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

How development and culture shape intuitions about prosocial obligations.

Marshall¹,

Gollwitzer²,

Mermin-Bunnell³

et al. 2022

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A different line of work suggests an alternative hypothesis. When people are in a position to provide help, they feel more obligated to support family members in need, compared to strangers in need (McManus et al, 2020(McManus et al, , 2021. In this vein, people may provide more social support to those whom they have long-standing relationships with.…”

Section: Study 1b Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tendency to overinvest in relationships may be especially taxing under crisis circumstances, when people have limited resources. Moreover, the fear and anxiety that people experience under crisis may lead them to stick to familiar partners (Greenberg & Kosloff, 2008) and increase their commitment to pre-existing relationships (Florian et al, 2002;McManus et al, 2020McManus et al, , 2021. Thus, in crisis contexts, the amount of social support that people receive from newer social partners may decrease, as those partners focus on their own pre-existing relationships.…”

Section: Relational Mobility Relationship Quality and Well-being: Two...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of relational mobility in relationship quality and well-being

Park

Kim

Young

2022

Journal of Social and Personal Relationships

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper examined the associations among: (1) the perceived freedom to initiate and end interpersonal relationships ( relational mobility), (2) relationship quality, and (3) well-being. Across 38 nations, people in nations with higher relational mobility reported greater well-being, which was explained by higher-quality relationships with close others (Study 1A). This effect was replicated at the individual level, after controlling for extraversion and socio-economic status (Study 1B). Finally, first-year college students with higher relational mobility reported receiving more social support from new friends during the COVID-19 pandemic, which explained those students’ higher well-being during the pandemic (Study 2). Together, this work demonstrates that relational mobility can explain enhanced well-being across nations, individuals, and life circumstances, and indicates potential avenues for interventions that increase the well-being of individuals and societies.

show abstract

“…Responses may be further affected by the relationship between the transgressor and the punisher, or the punisher and the victim, such as if they are a parent and child rather than unrelated acquaintances (as described in our brief vignettes). Other sorts of moral judgments (e.g., McManus et al, 2020McManus et al, , 2021Weidman et al, 2020) and punishment behaviors (e.g., Lopez et al, 2019) are affected by familial bonds and close friendships, and instruction and avoidance of children's transgressions are also likely to be shaped by the punisher's pre-existing relationships.…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Navigating between punishment, avoidance, and instruction: The form and function of responses to moral violations varies across adult and child transgressors

et al. 2022

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Immoral actions can elicit a wide array of responses, ranging from pugnacious confrontation to passive distancing. What leads onlookers to react so differently to various violations? Across four studies (N = 2,085), we investigated how responses vary depending on whether moral transgressions are committed by adults or by children. Findings reliably demonstrated that adult participants were more likely to avoid adult transgressors, and more likely to instruct child transgressors about why their actions were wrong. These patterns arose from varying cost-benefit structures, derived in part from asymmetries in interpersonal power between adults and children, rendering adults' direct confrontation of children both less costly and more beneficial. Although adults' transgressions were judged to be relatively more wrong, participants had greater anxiety about the negative consequences of confronting adults, and they viewed adults' personalities as less malleable, thus diminishing the effectiveness of confrontation. In contrast, 4-to 9-year-old children did not differ in their willingness to avoid or instruct adult and child transgressors. Across studies, the content of transgressions (e.g., being harmful or impure) mattered little for determining the nature of responses. Overall, diverse responses to moral transgressions were uniquely tailored to the different costs and benefits associated with confronting adult and child transgressors.

show abstract

Re-examining the role of family relationships in structuring perceived helping obligations, and their impact on moral evaluation

Cited by 28 publications

References 76 publications

How development and culture shape intuitions about prosocial obligations.

How development and culture shape intuitions about prosocial obligations.

The role of relational mobility in relationship quality and well-being

Navigating between punishment, avoidance, and instruction: The form and function of responses to moral violations varies across adult and child transgressors

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About