Being nice by choice: The effect of counterfactual reasoning on children's social evaluations
Being nice by choice: The effect of counterfactual reasoning on children's social evaluations
复制标题
选择友善：反事实推理对儿童社会评价的影响
DOI：
10.1111/desc.13394
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发表时间：
2023
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Chernyak, Nadia
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wong, Alyson;Cordes, Sara;Harris, Paul L.;Chernyak, Nadia
进行反事实思维（对可能发生的事情进行推理）的能力对学习、能动性和社会评价至关重要。然而，人们对反事实推理中的个体差异如何在儿童的社会评价中发挥作用知之甚少。在目前的研究中，我们调查如何促使儿童从事反事实思考积极的道德行为影响儿童的社会评价。87名4 - 8岁的奥尔兹被介绍给一个从事积极道德行为的角色（与朋友分享贴纸），并询问角色可能对贴纸做的事情（反事实模拟）。孩子们被要求产生大量的反事实（五个替代行动）或少量的反事实（一个替代行动）。然后，孩子们被问到一系列社会评价问题，将这个角色与一个没有选择的角色进行对比（被告知将贴纸送给他的朋友）。结果表明，儿童谁generatedselfictioncounterfactuals更有可能积极评价的字符与选择比儿童谁没有产生自私的反事实，这表明，产生反事实最遥远的选择的行动（亲社会）导致儿童更积极地看待亲社会的行动。我们还发现了与年龄相关的变化：随着孩子年龄的增长，无论产生的反事实类型如何，他们都更有可能更积极地评价具有选择的角色。这些结果强调了反事实推理在道德评价发展中的重要性。研究重点年龄较大的儿童更有可能支持那些愿意分享的代理人，而不是那些没有选择的代理人。被提示产生更多反事实的儿童更有可能将资源分配给有选择的角色。产生自私反事实的儿童更积极地评价有选择的代理人。与理论表明的结果相比，儿童惩罚故意的违法者多于惩罚意外的违法者，我们建议儿童在做出积极的道德评价时也考虑自由意志。
The ability to engage in counterfactual thinking (reason about what elsecouldhave happened) is critical to learning, agency, and social evaluation. However, not much is known about how individual differences in counterfactual reasoning may play a role in children's social evaluations. In the current study, we investigate how prompting children to engage in counterfactual thinking about positive moral actions impacts children's social evaluations. Eighty‐seven 4‐8‐year‐olds were introduced to a character who engaged in a positive moral action (shared a sticker with a friend) and asked about whatelsethe character could have done with the sticker (counterfactual simulation). Children were asked to generate either a high number of counterfactuals (five alternative actions) or a low number of counterfactuals (one alternative action). Children were then asked a series of social evaluation questions contrasting that character with one who did not have a choice and had no alternatives (was told to give away the sticker to his friend). Results show that children who generatedselfishcounterfactuals were more likely to positively evaluate the character with choice than children who did not generate selfish counterfactuals, suggesting that generating counterfactuals most distant from the chosen action (prosociality) leads children to view prosocial actions more positively. We also found age‐related changes: as children got older, regardless of the type of counterfactuals generated, they were more likely to evaluate the character with choice more positively. These results highlight the importance of counterfactual reasoning in the development of moral evaluations.Research HighlightsOlder children were more likely to endorse agents whochooseto share over those who do not have a choice.Children who were prompted to generate more counterfactuals were more likely to allocate resources to characters with choice.Children who generated selfish counterfactuals more positively evaluated agents with choice.Comparable to theories suggesting children punish willful transgressors more than accidental transgressors, we propose children also consider free will when making positive moral evaluations.