Using Social Domain Information to Predict Future Social Actions

Steve Thoma, Jason Scofield, Stephnie Casterline, and Travis Hartin

University of Alabama

Background

• Children and adults divide the social world into moral and conventional domains (Turiel, 1998).– Domain information influences how children and

adults make inferences about social events (Smetana, 2006).• Children use a person’s past knowledge to

make inferences about the future (Koenig, Clement & Harris, 2004).– Children track multiple observations to make a

global judgment about a person’s knowledge and then maintain the judgment over time (Scofield & Behrend, 2008).

Study Overview

• Question:– Do children and adults track domain information

when judging an actor?• e.g., If children see an actor violate multiple moral (e.g.,

hitting) or conventional (e.g., cutting in line) rules do they judge the actor as bad?

• Participants (n=85):– n=46 Children (3-, 4- and 5-year-olds)– n=39 Adults (undergraduates)

Method4 Trials Moral Conventional

Rule Violating

Rule Following

Method

• Procedure– 4 trials, each depicting 3 acts and 1 judgment– Questions:• Evaluating the Act

– Whether the act was good or bad (a little or a lot)?– Should the act be praised or punished (a little or a lot)?

• Evaluating the Actor (i.e., global judgment)– Is the actor good or bad (a little or a lot)?

Hypotheses

• Children and adults will rate morals and conventions differently.– Children and adults will rate broken morals as worse and more

punish-worthy than broken conventions.– Children and adults will rate followed morals as better and more

praise-worthy than followed conventions.• Children and adults will make global judgment of an actor

who breaks or follows morals or conventions.– Children and adults will rate a moral rule-breaker as worse than

a conventional rule-breaker.– Children and adults will rate a moral rule-follower as better than

a conventional rule-follower.