Explaining the U-shaped development of intent-based moral judgments
When preschoolers evaluate actions and agents, they typically neglect agents’ intentions and focus on action outcomes instead. By contrast, intentions count much more than outcomes for older children and adults. This phenomenon has traditionally been seen as evidence of a developmental change in chi...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2016-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00219/full |
| _version_ | 1811255786844717056 |
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| author | Francesco eMargoni Luca eSurian |
| author_facet | Francesco eMargoni Luca eSurian |
| author_sort | Francesco eMargoni |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When preschoolers evaluate actions and agents, they typically neglect agents’ intentions and focus on action outcomes instead. By contrast, intentions count much more than outcomes for older children and adults. This phenomenon has traditionally been seen as evidence of a developmental change in children’s concept of what is morally good and bad. However, a growing number of studies shows that infants are able to reason about agents’ intentions and take them into account in their spontaneous socio-moral evaluations. Here we argue that this puzzling U-shaped trajectory in children’s judgments is best accounted for by a model that posits developmental continuity in moral competence and emphasizes the effect of immature executive function skills on preschoolers’ performance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:30:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8f0f2f47915248f68a15d8631c733435 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:30:24Z |
| publishDate | 2016-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-8f0f2f47915248f68a15d8631c7334352022-12-22T03:23:10ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782016-02-01710.3389/fpsyg.2016.00219171613Explaining the U-shaped development of intent-based moral judgmentsFrancesco eMargoni0Luca eSurian1University of TrentoUniversity of TrentoWhen preschoolers evaluate actions and agents, they typically neglect agents’ intentions and focus on action outcomes instead. By contrast, intentions count much more than outcomes for older children and adults. This phenomenon has traditionally been seen as evidence of a developmental change in children’s concept of what is morally good and bad. However, a growing number of studies shows that infants are able to reason about agents’ intentions and take them into account in their spontaneous socio-moral evaluations. Here we argue that this puzzling U-shaped trajectory in children’s judgments is best accounted for by a model that posits developmental continuity in moral competence and emphasizes the effect of immature executive function skills on preschoolers’ performance.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00219/fullExecutive FunctionTheory of MindIntentionMoral Developmentmoral judgment |
| spellingShingle | Francesco eMargoni Luca eSurian Explaining the U-shaped development of intent-based moral judgments Frontiers in Psychology Executive Function Theory of Mind Intention Moral Development moral judgment |
| title | Explaining the U-shaped development of intent-based moral judgments |
| title_full | Explaining the U-shaped development of intent-based moral judgments |
| title_fullStr | Explaining the U-shaped development of intent-based moral judgments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Explaining the U-shaped development of intent-based moral judgments |
| title_short | Explaining the U-shaped development of intent-based moral judgments |
| title_sort | explaining the u shaped development of intent based moral judgments |
| topic | Executive Function Theory of Mind Intention Moral Development moral judgment |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00219/full |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT francescoemargoni explainingtheushapeddevelopmentofintentbasedmoraljudgments AT lucaesurian explainingtheushapeddevelopmentofintentbasedmoraljudgments |