2-154 - New Insights into the Role of Emotion in Sociomoral Judgment and Behavior from Infancy and Beyond

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The role of emotional processes in moral judgment and action is a critically important topic, yet much remains to be understood. Major questions remain unanswered, such as whether emotions cause, or are merely associated with moral judgments, whether the function of emotion for humans’ moral sense shifts across development, and how complex interactions between cognition and emotion feedback on one another during development to shape pro- and antisocial behavior. With these questions in mind and within a broad developmental framework, this symposium considers the role of emotions in moral development. Speaker 1 will present evidence that emotion begins its role in moral development very early in ontogeny by showing that experienced emotion is causally related to 6-month-old infants’ sociomoral evaluations. Speaker 2 will demonstrate that toddlers find sharing their resources to be emotionally rewarding, suggesting that positive emotion may act as a carrot that encourages further prosociality. Speaker 3 will show that this role for emotion of encouraging prosociality extends beyond the domain of resource sharing, by showing that young children take pride in helping others achieve their goals. Speaker 4 will present a study examining neural correlates of antisocial behavior in youths with conduct disorder who were classified as being either high or low on callous-unemotional traits. Together, using a variety of novel methodologies and study populations, research in this symposium highlights new insights into the role of emotional processes for typical and atypical moral development.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chair

• Conor Steckler, University of British Columbia

Individual Presentations

• Is Emotion Causally Related to Infants’ Sociomoral Evaluations? - Presenting Author: Conor Steckler, University of British Columbia; Kiley Hamlin, University of British Columbia

• Giving Leads to Happiness in Young Children: Evidence from Canada and Vanuatu - Presenting Author: Lara Aknin, Simon Fraser University; Kiley Hamlin, University of British Columbia; Tanya Broesch, Simon Fraser University; Elizabeth Dunn, University of British Columbia

• Young Children’s Elevation in Posture Increases After They Have Helped Others - Presenting Author: Robert Hepach, Max Planck Inst for Evol Anthropology; Amrisha Vaish, University of Virginia; Michael Tomasello, Max Planck Institute

• Neural Abnormalities in the Response to Social Provocation in Youth with Conduct Disorder - Presenting Author: R. James Blair, National Institute of Mental Health; Stuart White, National Institute of Mental Health