Children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression

The present study examined how cost and familiarity interact to influence the helping behaviors of 5- to 6-year-olds (N = 120) in a third-party moral transgression. We also investigated children’s sharing behaviors and moral evaluations towards the transgressor and victim of the transgression. Child...

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Main Author: Tan, Wendi Hui Min
Other Authors: Setoh Pei Pei
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138231
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1382312020-04-29T06:25:34Z Children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression Tan, Wendi Hui Min Setoh Pei Pei School of Social Sciences psetoh@ntu.edu.sg Social sciences::Psychology The present study examined how cost and familiarity interact to influence the helping behaviors of 5- to 6-year-olds (N = 120) in a third-party moral transgression. We also investigated children’s sharing behaviors and moral evaluations towards the transgressor and victim of the transgression. Children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, such that they had prior interaction with the victim (Familiarity), or none (No Familiarity); and were promised a sticker reward contingent on their timely completion of a coloring task (Cost), or awarded the stickers unconditionally (No Cost). After observing the transgressor destroy the victim’s block tower, children were assessed on their responses to the victim’s prompts for help, their willingness to share resources with the agents, and ratings of the agents’ moral goodness. Results showed that children were more likely to help a familiar than unfamiliar victim, but only when helping was non-costly. Moreover, in general, children were unlikely to offer instrumental help to the victim, except when helping was non-costly and the victim was a familiar person. While children shared resources more generously with the victim than transgressor, they were also generally selfish in their sharing, and kept more resources for themselves regardless of the recipient. Lastly, children evaluated the victim positively and the transgressor negatively in terms of moral goodness, thus showing a good understanding of the moral scenario. Taken together, our findings suggest that children’s decisions on whether to help and share with the victim of a moral transgression were largely influenced by self-interest. Bachelor of Arts in Psychology 2020-04-29T06:25:34Z 2020-04-29T06:25:34Z 2020 Final Year Project (FYP) https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138231 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
country Singapore
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Psychology
spellingShingle Social sciences::Psychology
Tan, Wendi Hui Min
Children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression
description The present study examined how cost and familiarity interact to influence the helping behaviors of 5- to 6-year-olds (N = 120) in a third-party moral transgression. We also investigated children’s sharing behaviors and moral evaluations towards the transgressor and victim of the transgression. Children were randomly assigned to one of four conditions, such that they had prior interaction with the victim (Familiarity), or none (No Familiarity); and were promised a sticker reward contingent on their timely completion of a coloring task (Cost), or awarded the stickers unconditionally (No Cost). After observing the transgressor destroy the victim’s block tower, children were assessed on their responses to the victim’s prompts for help, their willingness to share resources with the agents, and ratings of the agents’ moral goodness. Results showed that children were more likely to help a familiar than unfamiliar victim, but only when helping was non-costly. Moreover, in general, children were unlikely to offer instrumental help to the victim, except when helping was non-costly and the victim was a familiar person. While children shared resources more generously with the victim than transgressor, they were also generally selfish in their sharing, and kept more resources for themselves regardless of the recipient. Lastly, children evaluated the victim positively and the transgressor negatively in terms of moral goodness, thus showing a good understanding of the moral scenario. Taken together, our findings suggest that children’s decisions on whether to help and share with the victim of a moral transgression were largely influenced by self-interest.
author2 Setoh Pei Pei
author_facet Setoh Pei Pei
Tan, Wendi Hui Min
format Final Year Project
author Tan, Wendi Hui Min
author_sort Tan, Wendi Hui Min
title Children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression
title_short Children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression
title_full Children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression
title_fullStr Children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression
title_full_unstemmed Children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression
title_sort children consider self-interest in their decisions to help and share with victims of a third-party moral transgression
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2020
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/138231
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