Children's moral reasoning about self- versus other-benefiting public health measures

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology 2023-05, Vol.229, p.105623-105623, Article 105623
• Main Authors: Probst, Sarah, Nowack, Amy, Warneken, Felix
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Child; COVID-19; Framing; Humans; Moral development; Morals; Pandemics; Problem Solving; Public Health
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105623

•5- to 10-year old children saw hypothetical vignettes where a public health behavior could protect the self or another from harm.•Framing the behaviors as protecting others resulted in more positive evaluations of followers and more negative evaluations of violators compared to framing them as protecting the self.•Children were sensitive to both the severity of the outcome and the intention of the agents when assessing the morality of their actions. The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced novel public health measures such as masking and social distancing. In adults, framing these behaviors as benefiting others versus the self has been shown to affect people’s perceptions of public health measures and willingness to comply. Here we asked whether self- versus other-oriented frames of novel public health measures influence children’s endorsement and moral reasoning. Children aged 5 to 10 years viewed hypothetical dilemmas of aliens in which we manipulated the frame (other-oriented or self-oriented) of the prevention behavior and the severity (high or low) of the potential harm. Across two studies (Study 1: N = 48; Study 2: N = 61), results showed that across ages framing the behaviors as other-oriented, but not self-oriented, yielded more positive ratings of individuals who followed the public health measures and more negative ratings of those who did not. Across both frames, children generally endorsed these public health measures when the severity was high. Children used more moralizing concepts in other-oriented frames and were more critical of intentional transgressions over accidental transgressions, demonstrating further evidence that other-oriented frames induce moral reasoning. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these framing effects for sociomoral reasoning and action.