Young Humeans: the role of emotions in children's evaluation of moral reasoning abilities

Abstract

Three experiments investigated whether children in grades K, 2, and 4 (n = 144) view emotional comprehension as important in solving moral dilemmas. The experiments asked whether a human or an artificially intelligent machine would be best at solving different types of problems, ranging from moral and emotional to nonmoral and pragmatic. In Experiment 1, children in all age groups indicated that a human would be superior to a computer not only at comprehending emotions, but also at solving moral dilemmas. In Experiment 2, older children also indicated that a human could solve moral dilemmas better than a 'robot' with human-like perceptual and physical abilities. Experiment 3 further demonstrated that these effects were not solely due to a bias towards humans. Thus, children as young as age 5 view emotional understanding as an important element for moral, but not for nonmoral, reasoning, suggesting that the basis for Humean intuitions emerges early in life.

A Person-Centered Approach to Moral Judgment

“…There is support that these empathic traits may, in fact, serve as reliable indicators of future behavior—deficits in empathy are a hallmark of antisocial tendencies, and avoiding individuals with such tendencies is obviously beneficial (Becker, Stuewig, Herrera, & McCloskey, 2004; Haidt, 2001; Walton-Moss, Mangello, Frye, & Campbell, 2005). Even young children are sensitive to this fact when seeking moral counsel, preferring an intellectually deficient but emotionally healthy adult rather than vice versa (Danovitch & Keil, 2008). An action that signals an individual may have a deficit in empathy would serve as a very useful source of social information.…”

Growing up with Google: How children's understanding and use of internet‐based devices relates to cognitive development

“…For instance, in a study that took place prior to the advent of social media, 5‐ and 8‐year‐olds expressed surprise when a computer answered a biographical question about them (van Duuren, Dossett, & Robinson, ). Likewise, when judging what kinds of questions should be directed toward a computer or person, 5‐year‐olds indicate that questions involving emotional or moral judgments should not be directed toward a computer; however, not until age 7 do children strongly prefer to consult a computer rather than a human for answers to computational or obscure factual questions (Danovitch & Keil, ). Unfortunately, because a wide range of methodologies have been used to probe children's thinking about computers, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions from these studies.…”

“…Unfortunately, because a wide range of methodologies have been used to probe children's thinking about computers, it is difficult to draw definitive conclusions from these studies. Many studies of children's understanding of computers are also limited in their scope because they were undertaken before internet access became widely available (e.g., Scaife & Van Duuren, ; van Duuren et al, ), did not directly reference the internet when describing the computers (e.g., Danovitch & Keil, ), or they failed to take into account children's prior experience with the internet. Consequently, research is needed to determine whether children hold similar views of modern internet‐based devices.…”

Children Show Selective Trust in Technological Informants

“…This understanding is also evident in that children attribute similar properties to a computer and a television (Subrahmanyam, Gelman, & Lafosse, 2002). Similarly, 5-year-olds indicate that computers are useful for obtaining factual information, but that they are much less useful for making emotional or moral judgments (Danovitch & Keil, 2008). Despite understanding the basic properties of computers by age 5, children do not develop an accurate understanding of how computers function or generate responses until age 11 or later (Van Duuren, Dossett, & Robinson, 1998).…”