The more familiar the others, the higher the morality: children’s preference for familiar others in moral expectations early appears in the negative moral context

Abstract

ABSTRACT : In order to explore the development mechanism of construction theory in the field of moral judgment, this study investigated the influence of age and social distance on such moral expectations in positive moral context and negative moral context. In both positive and negative moral contexts, 5–6-year-old children had the highest moral expectations of people who are socially closest to them. In negative moral contexts, 3–4-year-old children had significantly higher moral expectations of people who are socially closest to them, whereas in positive moral contexts, no significant difference was noted in their moral expectations of others for various degrees of social distance. These findings suggest that children have lower moral expectations of strangers and exhibit a preference for familiar person in moral expectations as they grow older. And this preference was first observed in contexts which the child thought that someone close to him or her was less likely to do immoral things in negative moral context than to do moral things in positive moral contexts. In conclusion, our study provides empirical evidence for construction theory in the field of moral judgment, proving that social distance, age and moral context strongly affect children’s moral expectations of others.