The development of intention-based morality: The influence of intention salience and recency, negligence, and outcome on children’s and adults’ judgments

Nobes, Gavin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1991-1130, Panagiotaki, Georgia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2975-1196 and Engelhardt, Paul (2017) The development of intention-based morality: The influence of intention salience and recency, negligence, and outcome on children’s and adults’ judgments. Developmental Psychology, 53 (10). pp. 1895-1911. ISSN 0012-1649

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Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the influences on 4-8-year olds' and adults' moral judgments. In both, participants were told stories from previous studies that had indicated that children's judgments are largely outcome-based. Building on recent research in which one change to these studies' methods resulted in substantially more intention-based judgment, in Experiment 1 (N = 75) the salience and recency of intention information were increased, and in Experiment 2 (N = 99) carefulness information (i.e., the absence of negligence) was also added. In both experiments even the youngest children's judgments were primarily intention-based, and in Experiment 2 punishment judgments were similar to adults' from 5-6 years. Comparisons of data across studies and experiments indicated that both changes increased the proportion of intention-based punishment judgments - but not acceptability judgments - across age-groups. These findings challenge and help to explain those of much previous research, according to which children's judgments are primarily outcome-based. However, younger participants continued to judge according to outcome more than older participants. This might indicate that young children are more influenced by outcomes than are adults, but other possible explanations are discussed.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	moral judgment,intention,outcome,negligence,salience
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Cognition, Action and Perception Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Mental Health Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Social Cognition Research Group Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Research on Children and Families Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > UEA Experimental Philosophy Group
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	11 May 2017 05:06
Last Modified:	19 Jun 2023 10:31
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/63472
DOI:	10.1037/dev0000380

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