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Attentional Control Moderates the Relation between Sympathy and Ethical Guilt
Sebastian P Dys1, Marc Jambon2, Stephanie Buono3
1Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
The Journal of Genetic Psychology
|February 21, 2023
Summary
Children
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Moral Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
Background:
- Ethical guilt is a key component of moral development, but its precursors are not fully understood.
- Previous research has examined affective (e.g., sympathy) and cognitive (e.g., attention) precursors of ethical guilt independently.
- The interaction between these precursors and their combined effect on ethical guilt remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the independent and interactive effects of children's sympathy and attentional control on ethical guilt.
- To examine these effects in 4- and 6-year-old children.
Main Methods:
- 118 children (aged 4 and 6 years) participated in the study.
- Children completed an attentional control task.
- Participants provided self-reports on dispositional sympathy and ethical guilt in response to hypothetical ethical violations.
Main Results:
- Neither sympathy nor attentional control were directly associated with ethical guilt.
- Attentional control moderated the relationship between sympathy and ethical guilt.
- Sympathy was more strongly linked to ethical guilt when attentional control was higher.
Conclusions:
- Ethical guilt development involves an interaction between affective (sympathy) and cognitive (attentional control) processes.
- The findings were consistent across 4- and 6-year-olds and across genders.
- Promoting ethical development in children may benefit from interventions targeting both attentional control and sympathy.
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