Pellizzoni Sandra, Siegal Michael, Surian Luca
Department of Psychology, University of Trieste, Italy.
Dev Psychol. 2009 Jan;45(1):289-95. doi: 10.1037/a0014165.
Children and adults often judge that the side effects of the actions of an uncaring story agent have been intentional if the effects are harmful but not if these are beneficial, creating an asymmetrical "side-effect" effect. The authors report 3 experiments involving 4- and 5-year-olds (N = 188) designed to clarify the role of foreknowledge and caring in judgments of intentionality. Many children showed the side-effect effect even if agents were explicitly described as lacking foreknowledge of the outcome. Similarly, when agents were described as possessing foreknowledge but their caring state was unspecified, children more often judged that the negative, compared with the positive, effects of agents' actions were brought about intentionally. Regardless of foreknowledge, children infrequently judged positive outcomes as intentional when agent caring was unspecified, and they gave few attributions of intentionality when agents were described as having a false belief about the outcome. These results testify to the robustness of the side-effect effect and highlight the extent to which children's intentionality judgments are asymmetrical. The findings suggest developmental continuity in the link between reasoning about morality and intentionality.
儿童和成人常常认为，如果一个冷漠的故事角色的行为产生的副作用是有害的，那么这些副作用就是故意造成的，但如果副作用是有益的，就不认为是故意的，从而产生一种不对称的“副作用”效应。作者报告了3项针对4岁和5岁儿童（N = 188）的实验，旨在阐明预知和关心在意图判断中的作用。即使明确描述角色对结果缺乏预知，许多儿童仍表现出副作用效应。同样，当描述角色具有预知但未明确其关心状态时，与积极副作用相比，儿童更常判断角色行为的消极副作用是故意造成的。无论有无预知，当未明确角色是否关心时，儿童很少将积极结果判断为故意的，而当描述角色对结果持有错误信念时，他们很少做出故意行为的归因。这些结果证明了副作用效应的稳健性，并突出了儿童意图判断的不对称程度。研究结果表明，在道德推理和意图之间的联系上存在发展连续性。
