Poster #125 - Is the "True Self" Truly Moral? – Intuitions About Identity Across Age

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

A growing body of research has demonstrated that intuitions about identity distinguish between what is peripheral to the self and more central self-characteristics, the so-called “true self” (Strohminger, Knobe & Newman, 2017). Three features robustly characterize intuitions about the true self: it is (a) essentially moral, (b) essentially good and (c) perspective-invariant.
Research on the true self has been almost entirely restricted to adult populations (with one exception, Heiphetz, Strohminger, Gelman and Young, 2018). As a consequence, little is known about how it develops, and whether the features of being moral, good and perspective invariant equally apply to children's, adolescents' and adults' notions of the true self. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of age on these three features by testing whether age moderates effects of domains of social reasoning, valence of change and perspective on people's assessment of the true self. In line with the notion of general psychological essentialism, it was expected that features of the true self apply equally across age groups.
Method
The study involved 313 participants across three age groups: 63 children in grades 5-6, 118 adolescents in grades 9-10 and 132 young adults. Participants were presented scenarios describing change that varied simultaneously along three dimensions: domain (moral, conventional and personal), valence of change (from good to bad or bad to good), and the perspective (1st or 3rd person). Participant’s judgments about the effect of the described change on identity were then captured by asking whether the target person would be the same or a different person. The following scenario exemplifies a change from good to bad in the moral domain from a 3rd person perspective:

Imagine a person named Chris. Chris used to think that it was WRONG to hit other people, but one day Chris changed. From that day on Chris thinks it is OK to hit other people.
Findings
A mixed ANOVA revealed a main effect of domain on change judgments (see Table 1). This effect was substantial and far larger than any other main or interaction effect. Additionally, there were main effects of age-group, valence, and perspective, and a significant interaction between age-group and domain (Figure 1). Two three-way interaction effects involving age reached the level of significance, but were relatively small.
Post-hoc comparisons showed that moral changes resulted in a greater impact on identity than conventional changes (t(596) = 20.83, p < .001), which in turn impacted identity more than personal changes (t(596) = 10.58, p < .001). This main effect of domain was characterized by an interaction with age group indicating that adolescents consider conventional changes as more essential than do young adults.
Conclusion
Results are consistent with research on the true self in adult samples and suggest that the fundamental features of the true self are stable over the course of development. Moral qualities were found to be most important for defining the true self, even in childhood. Future research should test whether this moral bias in identity judgments is already present in young children.

Authors

• Paul Lefebvre, Wilfrid Laurier University
  Presenting Author

• Tobias Krettenauer, Wilfried Laurier University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Steven G Hertz, Wilfrid Laurier University
  Non-Presenting Author