Culture, context, and the development of moral accountability judgments.

Abstract

This study examined the impact of contextual factors on Indian and American adults'and children's (N= 180) tendencies to hold agents morally accountable for justice breaches. Results revealed that Indians more frequently absolved agents of moral accountability for breaches performed under emotional duress or by young children than did Americans. Breaches were less frequently categorized in moral terms when moral reasoning and accountability judgments were assessed simultaneously than when only moral reasoning was assessed. Discussion considered (a) the impact of nonmoral beliefs on cultural and age differences in everyday moral judgment; (b) the use of personal-choice reasoning in weighting of extenuating circumstances; and (c) the methodological importance of focusing simultaneously on responsability appraisals and social domain categorizations in understanding contextual influences on moral resoning