Title: How Group Norms, Theory of Mind and Intentionality Influence Moral Evaluations of a Misinformer

• In Event: An Integrative Perspective on the link between Theory of Mind and Moral Development

Abstract

Misinformation is one of modern society’s biggest threats, often spread to bolster one’s own social group over another (Levy et al., 2021). It can be spread accidentally or with the deliberate intention to mislead, which may influence how the person responsible for sharing misinformation is morally evaluated. Inter-group misinformation is most widespread on social media, where young people are particularly at risk of encountering it, with reports showing six in ten UK teenagers use social media to get their news (Ofcom, 2022). It is therefore important to understand how group norms around loyalty or seeking the truth may influence moral evaluations of a misinformer, and to explore whether the misinformer’s intentionality is considered. Thus far, the role of individual perspective-taking ability (e.g. Theory of Mind, ToM) has yet to be explored in the moral evaluations of a misinformer from middle childhood to adolescence, despite the importance of ToM in children’s moral judgments (D’Esterre et al., 2019) and children’s avoidance of accepting misinformation (Welch-Ross, 1999). The present study aimed to address this gap in the literature.
UK-based children aged 8-11 (N = 133; Mage = 9.33) and adolescents aged 12-15 (N = 133; Mage = 13.5) participated in this study. Participants completed an online questionnaire where they were presented with a hypothetical scenario involving an inter-school competition in which their school was competing. They were randomly assigned to a norm condition where their school either valued loyalty to fellow teammates or valued being truth-seeking about information. During this competition, a peer from their school shared misinformation on WhatsApp, accusing a rival peer from the opposing school of breaking competition rules. Participants were either told the misinformer accidentally misinformed or that the misinformer deliberately intended to mislead, before morally evaluating the misinformer. ToM ability was measured with four stories taken from the Strange Stories task (White, et al., 2009).
Participants who read about a misinformer who deliberately misinformed were more likely to negatively judge and punish the misinformer. However, children were more likely to include the misinformer compared with adolescents, regardless of the misinformer’s intentionality. There was a three-way interaction between norm condition, age and ToM on participants’ judgments of the misinformer (Figure 1). In both norm conditions, children with low ToM made more positive judgments about the misinformer than children with high ToM, as did adolescents, but only in the condition where loyalty was the norm. In the condition with a truth-seeking norm, children with low ToM made more positive judgments about the misinformer than adolescents with low ToM did, and adolescents with high ToM made more positive judgments about the misinformer than children with high ToM did.
These results suggest that while the intentionality of the misinformer is influential to children’s and adolescents’ moral evaluations of the misinformer, factors such as ToM and age also need to be considered. Even when their group values loyalty, having high ToM may reduce children’s and adolescents’ positive feelings towards a teammate who misinforms, and could have implications for reducing their acceptance of misinformation.

Authors

• Aqsa Farooq, University Of Exeter
  Presenting Author

• Anna Adlam

• Adam Rutland, University Of Exeter