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Intention Attribution and the Development of Moral Evaluation
Research with infants and toddlers suggests that even early in development, humans evaluate others by considering the outcome of an action in relation to the intention underlying it. When someone tries but fails to do a good deed, for example, it seems that it is “the thought that counts.” However,...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330285/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30666225 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02663 |
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author | Hilton, Brooke C. Kuhlmeier, Valerie A. |
author_facet | Hilton, Brooke C. Kuhlmeier, Valerie A. |
author_sort | Hilton, Brooke C. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Research with infants and toddlers suggests that even early in development, humans evaluate others by considering the outcome of an action in relation to the intention underlying it. When someone tries but fails to do a good deed, for example, it seems that it is “the thought that counts.” However, research with slightly older children in the preschool years has produced mixed results: in some cases, children are solely considering the positive or negative outcome of an action when evaluating others, while in others, intention attributions are integrated. Such contradictory findings have prompted debate about the development of moral reasoning. Here, we examine extant research on early moral evaluation and propose that differences in the way that task procedures present intention and outcome information can (1) support or preclude young children’s intention attribution and (2) alter the relative saliency or predominance of each kind of information. In turn, these differences would influence the frequency and degree to which young children generate intention-oriented moral evaluations. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6330285 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-63302852019-01-21 Intention Attribution and the Development of Moral Evaluation Hilton, Brooke C. Kuhlmeier, Valerie A. Front Psychol Psychology Research with infants and toddlers suggests that even early in development, humans evaluate others by considering the outcome of an action in relation to the intention underlying it. When someone tries but fails to do a good deed, for example, it seems that it is “the thought that counts.” However, research with slightly older children in the preschool years has produced mixed results: in some cases, children are solely considering the positive or negative outcome of an action when evaluating others, while in others, intention attributions are integrated. Such contradictory findings have prompted debate about the development of moral reasoning. Here, we examine extant research on early moral evaluation and propose that differences in the way that task procedures present intention and outcome information can (1) support or preclude young children’s intention attribution and (2) alter the relative saliency or predominance of each kind of information. In turn, these differences would influence the frequency and degree to which young children generate intention-oriented moral evaluations. Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-01-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6330285/ /pubmed/30666225 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02663 Text en Copyright © 2019 Hilton and Kuhlmeier. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Hilton, Brooke C. Kuhlmeier, Valerie A. Intention Attribution and the Development of Moral Evaluation |
title | Intention Attribution and the Development of Moral Evaluation |
title_full | Intention Attribution and the Development of Moral Evaluation |
title_fullStr | Intention Attribution and the Development of Moral Evaluation |
title_full_unstemmed | Intention Attribution and the Development of Moral Evaluation |
title_short | Intention Attribution and the Development of Moral Evaluation |
title_sort | intention attribution and the development of moral evaluation |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330285/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30666225 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02663 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT hiltonbrookec intentionattributionandthedevelopmentofmoralevaluation AT kuhlmeiervaleriea intentionattributionandthedevelopmentofmoralevaluation |