Explanations for norm violations affect preschoolers' judgments of norm violators.

Abstract

Preschoolers commonly interpret how a group is as evidence for how individual group members should be-often leading to emphatic disapproval of norm violations (i.e., descriptive-to-prescriptive reasoning). The present research suggests that this tendency is shaped by how preschoolers explain group norm violations. In Study 1, preschoolers held norm violators accountable for their actions (e.g., they evaluated them as bad and withheld resources from them), suggesting that they construed norm violations as internally motivated and avoidable acts deserving of blame. In Study 2, preschoolers were most disapproving of those who violated norms because of preferences (e.g., because they liked to), less disapproving of those who did so because of traits (e.g., because of an aversion), and least disapproving of those who did so because of situations (e.g., because of an external constraint), suggesting that explanations for norm violations affect preschoolers' judgments of norm violators. Thus, similar to a judge's sentence or a jury's verdict, preschoolers' reasoning about the (mis)behavior of others is affected by why the behavior occurred. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).