Children's intention-based moral judgments of helping agents

tDuring preschool years, children’s disapprovals of harming actions increasingly rely onintention rather than outcome. Here we studied for the first time whether a similaroutcome-to-intent shift occurs in judgments of helping actions. Children aged four-to-eight (N = 404) were asked to evaluate the goodness and deserved reward of attemptedand accidental help (Experiment 1), and the badness and punishability of attempted andaccidental harm (Experiment 2). We found an outcome-to-intent shift both in goodness andbadness evaluations. In judging failed attempts, children’s intent-based attribution of good-ness develops prior to the intent-based attribution of badness. We discuss the implicationsof the present findings for recent theories on conceptual change and cognitive architectureunderlying the development of moral judgment.

During preschool years, children's disapprovals of harming actions increasingly rely on intention rather than outcome. Here we studied for the first time whether a similar outcome-to-intent shift occurs in judgments of helping actions. Children aged four-to-eight (N = 404) were asked to evaluate the goodness and deserved reward of attempted and accidental help (Experiment 1), and the badness and punishability of attempted and accidental harm (Experiment 2). We found an outcome-to-intent shift both in goodness and badness evaluations. In judging failed attempts, children's intent-based attribution of goodness develops prior to the intent-based attribution of badness. We discuss the implications of the present findings for recent theories on conceptual change and cognitive architecture underlying the development of moral judgment.