ERIC Number: EJ1333855
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Apr
Pages: 7
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Guilt Promotes Honesty in Preschoolers
Ma, Fengling; An, Rui; Wu, Danxia; Luo, Xianming; Xu, Fen; Lagattuta, Kristin Hansen
Developmental Psychology, v58 n4 p693-699 Apr 2022
The current study examined the influence of guilt on young children's honesty about their transgression. Children (N = 192; 4-6 years of age; 49.5% male, 50.5% female; middle-income Chinese families) participated in a modified temptation resistance paradigm where they were asked not to peek at a toy in the absence of an experimenter. Next, the children were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) guilt condition, where children were induced with guilt using a revised mishap paradigm; (b) sadness condition, where children were induced with sadness by watching a video; and (c) baseline condition, where children did not participate in any additional emotion-inducing task. When later questioned about whether they peeked at the toy, children in the guilt condition were significantly less likely to lie compared with those in the sadness or baseline conditions. There was no significant difference between the sadness and baseline conditions.
Descriptors: Anxiety, Young Children, Psychological Patterns, Emotional Response, Deception, Foreign Countries, Child Behavior, Ethics
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Data File: URL: https://doi-org.bibliotheek.ehb.be/10.17605/OSF.IO/ACQ48
Author Affiliations: N/A