ERIC Number: EJ1007496
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2013-Mar
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Children's Use of Moral Behavior in Selective Trust: Discrimination versus Learning
Doebel, Sabine; Koenig, Melissa A.
Developmental Psychology, v49 n3 p462-469 Mar 2013
Does valence play a role in children's sensitivity to and use of moral information in the service of selective learning? In the present experiment, we explored this question by presenting 3- to 5-year-old children with informants who behaved in ways consistent or inconsistent with sociomoral norms, such as helping a peer retrieve a toy or deliberately tearing a peer's artwork. "Good" versus "bad" informants were contrasted with putatively neutral-behaving informants. In an effort to specify the role that moral information plays in guiding children's selective trust, we measured children's ability to discriminate the informants as well as their willingness to learn from them. We found that children were significantly more likely to discriminate negatively behaving agents from neutral ones than they were to discriminate positively behaving agents from neutral ones. In contrast, children did not differ in the degree to which they used negative versus positive moral information in their selective learning; both types of information were used to guide trust across domains of knowledge. Results are discussed in terms of the positive-negative asymmetry observed and the different forms that a negativity bias might take. (Contains 2 figures.)
Descriptors: Preschool Children, Moral Values, Trust (Psychology), Prosocial Behavior, Role, Child Behavior, Cognitive Processes, Antisocial Behavior, Learning Processes, Films, Vignettes, Discrimination Learning
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A