title: The influence of intention, outcome and question-wording on children's and adults' moral judgments.
abstract: The influence of intention and outcome information on moral judgments was investigated by telling children aged 4-8yearsandadults (N=169) stories involving accidental harms (positive intention, negative outcome) or attempted harms (negative intention, positive outcome) from two studies (Helwig, Zelazo, & Wilson, 2001; Zelazo, Helwig, & Lau, 1996). When the original acceptability (wrongness) question was asked, the original findings were closely replicated: children's and adults' acceptability judgments were based almost exclusively on outcome, and children's punishment judgments were also primarily outcome-based. However, when this question was rephrased, 4-5-year-olds' judgments were approximately equally influenced by intention and outcome, and from 5-6years they were based considerably more on intention than outcome. These findings indicate that, for methodological reasons, children's (and adults') ability to make intention-based judgment has often been substantially underestimated.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom. Electronic address: g.nobes@uea.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Gavin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nobes
authors.affiliation: Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Georgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Panagiotaki
authors.affiliation: School of Education and Lifelong Learning, University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Kimberley J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Bartholomew
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009014:Morals; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011678:Punishment; D012938:Social Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Acceptability; Intention; Moral development; Moral judgment; Outcome; Punishment; Replication