The Role of Social Relationships in Shaping Children’s Socio-Moral Reasoning

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

While some theorists argue that social relationships shape socio-moral cognition and behavior (Bloom, 2011), relatively little work has directly tested this proposal. This symposium unites developmental psychology with moral and social psychology to clarify when—and how—social relationships begin to shape children’s socio-moral cognition. Paper 1 investigates the extent to which children and adults use information about social relationships to infer punishers’ motives. Children report that punishers, regardless of social-relational context, punish for consequentialist reasons. However, adults report that punishers are more motivated by retributive concerns when the victim is a peer or close friend versus a stranger. Also focusing on punishment, Paper 2 shows that, when speculating about why individuals come in contact with the legal system, children of incarcerated and non-incarcerated parents spontaneously attribute such contact to individuals’ negative internal qualities. However, when asked about their own incarcerated parents, children report a great deal of positivity. Paper 3 examines children’s inferences about which group-based relationships constrain moral obligation, finding that younger and older children expect “mean” behaviors to be directed toward novel out-group members. However, children become less certain about how gender and racial group membership shape morally-laden behaviors with age. Finally, Paper 4 shows that parent-child conversations about racism decrease White parents’ and children’s anti-Black attitudes, suggesting that conversations couched within the parent-child relational context can help reduce certain types of immorality (anti-Black attitudes). Together, these papers cut across sub-areas of psychology to clarify the role of social relationships in shaping children’s socio-moral reasoning.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chair

• James Dunlea, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Why We Think Other People Punish: The Role of Development and Social Relationships - Presenting Author: Julia Marshall, Boston College; Non-Presenting Author: Paul Bloom, Yale University

• Children’s Positivity Toward Close Others Supersedes the Negativity Associated With Perceived Transgression - Presenting Author: James Dunlea, Columbia University; Non-Presenting Author: Larisa Heiphetz Solomon, Columbia University

• Moral Behavior Within and Across Social Groups - Presenting Author: Lisa Chalik, Skidmore College

• Investigating the Influence of Dyadic Conversations About Racial Incidents on White American Parents' and Children's Implicit Attitudes - Presenting Author: Sylvia Perry, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Allison Skinner, University of Georgia; Non-Presenting Author: Jamie L Abaied, University of Vermont; Non-Presenting Author: Adilene Osnaya, Purdue University; Non-Presenting Author: Sara F Waters, Washington State University