The Interplay of Theory of Mind and Moral Development: Children’s and Adults’ Attributions of Intent, Praise and Blame, and Deserved Consequences in False Belief Contexts

Abstract

Children’s mentalizing abilities and their moral reasoning both develop rapidly during the preschool years and are jointly critical for navigating our complex social world. As children develop, they place more emphasis on intentions in making moral judgments, yet little research has examined the role of belief understanding in morally-relevant situations. We examined children’s (N = 61), and adults’ (N = 36) judgments of agent intent, deserved consequence, and blame and praise in morally-relevant belief vignettes. By 5 years of age, children consistently rated agents with false beliefs as better intentioned in a good intent condition (even though the outcome was bad) than in a bad intent condition (even though the outcome was good). Yet, even 7-year-olds had difficulty assigning consequences (reward or punishment) based on an agents’ intent, and only adults assigned consequences as a function of intent. Nonetheless, children of both ages accurately assigned praise or blame as a function of intent. Understanding of praise and blame may represent a way station along the road to more accurate assignment of reward and punishment.