Do future actions matter more than past deeds? Temporal moral attribution in U.S. and Chinese school-age children

This study examines how children attribute moral responsibilities to their past and future actions and what role culture plays in children's temporal moral attribution. A total of 346 U.S. and Chinese 6-7 and 8- to 9-year-old children were randomly assigned to a past or future condition, in which they answered questions about their moral/immoral actions in hypothetical scenarios described as occurring in the last week or the next week. Whereas U.S. 8- to 9-year-olds favored more praise and reward for their future good deeds than past ones, Chinese 8- to 9-year-olds favored more praise and reward for their past good deeds than future ones. Chinese children also moralized their actions to a greater extent than U.S. children, and children reasoned about their moral/immoral actions in line with their cultural beliefs. Interesting age differences also emerged, suggesting the continuing development of mental time travel and moral cognition across middle childhood. The findings shed new light on the important role of time in moral judgment that is constrained by development progressions in mental time travel and specific to the cultural context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).