Morally-relevant theory of mind mediates the relationship between group membership and moral judgments

Abstract

Children rely on their understanding of others’ mental states to help them navigate complex social contexts involving moral judgments and group membership. This study examined the relationship between mental state understanding, group membership, and moral judgments. Children (4–10 years old, N = 120, MAge = 6.87 years, SDAge = 1.81), were interviewed and told about hypothetical peers who created advantages for their team that varied in the moral status of their intentions. Analyses revealed that morally-relevant Theory of Mind competence mediated the relations between group membership, attribution of intentions, and social exclusion when an advantage had both moral and intentional motives, but not when an advantage was a straightforward moral transgression. Morally-relevant Theory of Mind was predictive of person judgments and varied based on ingroup/outgroup status of the target. Future work should consider how children’s mental state understanding interacts with ingroup biases to affect outcomes in other contexts.