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Related Experiment Video

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Assessment of Mouse Judgment Bias through an Olfactory Digging Task

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Published on: March 4, 2022

Explaining the U-Shaped Development of Intent-Based Moral Judgments.

Francesco Margoni¹, Luca Surian¹

¹Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento Rovereto, Italy.

Frontiers in Psychology

|March 1, 2016

Summary

Preschoolers focus on action outcomes, not intentions, in moral judgments. This U-shaped development reflects immature executive functions, not a change in moral understanding.

Keywords:

executive function intention moral development moral judgment theory of mind

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Area of Science:

Developmental Psychology
Moral Psychology
Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

Preschoolers often prioritize action outcomes over intentions in moral evaluations.
Older children and adults weigh intentions more heavily than outcomes.
Infants demonstrate an ability to consider intentions in social judgments.

Purpose of the Study:

To explain the "U-shaped trajectory" in children's moral judgments.
To propose a model accounting for developmental changes in socio-moral reasoning.
To investigate the role of executive functions in preschoolers' moral evaluations.

Main Methods:

Review of existing developmental and cognitive studies.
Analysis of research on infant and child moral reasoning.
Theoretical modeling of moral competence and executive function interaction.

Main Results:

Infants can reason about intentions, suggesting early moral competence.
Preschoolers' focus on outcomes is linked to developing executive functions.
The "U-shaped" pattern is explained by performance limitations, not competence changes.

Conclusions:

Children's moral competence may be continuous from infancy.
Immature executive functions in preschoolers impact their moral judgments.
Developmental changes in moral reasoning are influenced by cognitive constraints.