The physiological correlates of children’s emotions in contexts of moral transgression

Abstract

Heightened attention to sociomoral conflicts and arousal at the prospect of committing moral transgressions are thought to increase the likelihood of negatively valenced moral emotions (NVMEs; e.g., guilt) in children. Here, we tested this biphasic model of moral emotions with a psychophysiological framework. For a series of vignettes depicting moral transgressions, 5- and 8-year-olds (N=138) were asked to anticipate their emotions as hypothetical victimizers. Their responses were coded for the presence and intensity of NVMEs. In addition, their heart rate (HR) was calculated for three intervals of interest: a baseline period, the presentation of vignettes, and the anticipation of emotions following vignettes. We used multilevel modeling to examine how change in children's HR across these intervals related to the intensity of their NVMEs. Those who experienced greater HR deceleration from baseline to vignettes and greater acceleration from vignettes to anticipated emotions reported more intense NVMEs. We discuss the potential attention- and arousal-related processes behind children's physiological reactivity and anticipated emotions in contexts of moral transgression.

Moral Emotions and Moral Disengagement: Concurrent and Longitudinal Associations With Aggressive Behavior Among Early Adolescents

“…Participants were asked “How would you feel if you had done what (hypothetical victimizer’s name) did?” Therefore, they were asked to select one feeling from the following responses: good, sad, guilty, ashamed, normal, a bit bad, angry, and afraid. These categories were taken from previous research with similar age groups and vignettes (e.g., Malti, Colasante, Zuffianò, & de Bruine, 2016). Because we were interested in moral emotions only, for each vignette responses to the questions were coded as 1 when preadolescents ticked one of the two moral emotions (guilty or ashamed) or 0 when preadolescents ticked one of the other six emotions (good, sad, normal, a bit bad, angry, and afraid).…”

Children’s attentional orientation is associated with their kind emotions.

“…People either: (a) fail to consider sufficiently how their actions affect others, or (b) lack concern for how their actions influence others (see Malti & Dys, 2015). Between these two explanations, we posit that the former likely accounts for selfish emotions among more people because evidence suggests that most young people show relatively high and stable levels of dispositional concern for others (i.e., sympathy) from middle childhood across adolescence (Carlo et al, 2015; Malti et al, 2016). For these reasons, we used a normative, community sample to understand better how children’s attention to environmental cues relates to subsequent kind and selfish emotions.…”

Not just sheer pleasure: Critiquing animations and their scope in children’s socialisation

“…Similar to odyssey experiences, tragedy can also function as a potential platform to view oneself against multiple selves; to be morally-awakened and aware of one's responsibility towards others' welfare and sense of communal harmony; to learn from the mistakes of others to avoid repeating them in the future; and, most critically, to understand, and acknowledge, one's vulnerabilities to human problems (Sherman, 1992). This could be achieved, in tragedy, by what Malti et al (2016) calls "perspective-taking" (p. 373). Tragedy allows its audiences to step into the shoes of a suffering-character to not only understand the various causes of their tragedy, but also discover the multifaceted ways of avoiding it.…”

“…Many qualitative studies have discovered that in comparison to 3-or-4-year-olds, 8-to-12-year-old children tend to experience more intense 'negatively valenced moral emotions' at the prospect of having indulged in a moral transgression, for they possess more sharply defined "facets of perspective-taking and self-regulation" (Malti et al, 2016, p. 373). By "negatively valenced moral emotions", Malti et al (2016) imply a set of "self-evaluative emotions in moral contexts [that] reflect an internalized understanding of moral rule validity and a willingness to assume responsibility for real or imagined wrongdoing" (p. 373). Cognitively, these emotions support children's interpretation of the meaning and severity of a committed transgression, as they encourage children to take on others' perspectives to perceive their actions as self-damaging or upsetting to others (Dahl & Kim, 2014;Yucel et al, 2020).…”

“…Precisely, this transition from the 'I' to the 'Me' happens due to socialisation, as individuals learn from experiences as they tag along the life-road. Most important, socialisation teaches them to incorporate multiple perspectives to analyse their actions and their impacts on others (Malti et al, 2016). An acknowledgment about this serves as a stimulation of the gradual appearance of the 'Me' that concentrates on our abilities to understand the responsibilities of our decisions and actions; this, however, does not divorce the 'Self' from the 'I' which is an equally-central factor of one's identity.…”