Children's attributions of moral emotions to victimizers: Some data, doubts and suggestions

Abstract

The main goal of this research was to re‐examine contradictions between several published studies of age‐related changes in children's attributions of moral emotions to transgressors, and to analyse the robustness of young children's tendency to fall into the happy victimizer pattern (is. to expect a wrongdoer to feel good rather than bad after having committed n certain moral transgression). Ninety children of three age levels (ie. 4‐, 6‐ and 8‐year‐olds) were first confronted with two stories involving a wrongdoer, and then judged how the story's character felt. Next, the children were presented with additional opportunities designed to lessen the incidence of young children's attributions of positive (is. immoral) emotions to the victimizer. Although a developmental trend from positive to negative emotions was evident, children at all ages were more likely to attribute positive rather than negative emotions to the victimizer. However, older children changed their initial attributions of positive feelings into negative emotions more often than did younger children. These results are discussed in comparison with the findings of related studies, and also in relation to theoretical accounts of young children's morality.