Who Deserves Moral Concern? The Perception of Humanity and Its Role in Moral Reasoning

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

People view some groups or individuals as less human than others. In adults, holding these views is associated with cruelty, by enabling the withdrawal of moral concern toward such groups (Bandura, 2016; Haslam & Loughnan, 2014). However, the developmental trajectory of this process remains unclear. In this Symposium, we bring together multiple perspectives within developmental psychology to shed light on children’s thinking about humanity and its role in moral reasoning.
The first two presentations demonstrate the relationship between the perception of humanity and moral concern across development. In Paper 1, we present two studies which demonstrate that children (aged 5-9) morally prioritize humans over animals much less than adults do, suggesting the human-centric view of moral worth appears later in development. Paper 2 investigates the mechanism that allows for the development of dehumanization. Similar patterns found in adults and children (aged 5-12) show that dehumanization and concurrent moral disengagement appear with no need for intensive social learning.
Presentations 3 and 4 explore factors that may influence the attribution of human-like mental states and moral status. Paper 3 explores children’s selective empathy based on targets’ moral characters. Six-year-olds expressed less emotional empathy toward antisocial (versus prosocial) puppets’ misfortune and happiness, and less empathic concern for their happiness, whereas cognitive empathy does not differ. Paper 4 investigates the development of gender-based objectification. While adults selectively objectify girl targets (and humanize boy targets) across a variety of measures, children’s (aged 4-8) patterns of objectification do not vary as consistently by target gender.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chair

• Wen Zhou, Duke Univeristy

Individual Presentations

• Children Morally Prioritize Humans Over Animals Less Than Adults Do - Presenting Author: Matti Wilks, Yale University; Non-Presenting Author: Lucius Caviola, Harvard University; Non-Presenting Author: Guy Kahane, University of Oxford; Non-Presenting Author: Paul Bloom, Yale University

• Children Aged 5-12 Years Blatantly Dehumanize an Outgroup as Adults Do - Presenting Author: Wen Zhou, Duke Univeristy; Non-Presenting Author: Brian Hare, Duke University

• Morally Selective Empathy: Children Show Less Empathy Toward Antisocial Puppets Than Prosocial Puppets - Presenting Author: Yiyi Wang, Peking University; Non-Presenting Author: Yanjie Su, Peking University

• Objects of Inquiry: Exploring the Objectification of Young Female Targets - Presenting Author: Rachel Leshin, New York University; Non-Presenting Author: Marjorie Rhodes, New York University