Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Dev Psychol. 2011 Jul;47(4):1054-64. doi: 10.1037/a0023869.
Children aged 3 years and 4½ years old watched a puppet, struggling to achieve goals, who was helped by a 2nd puppet and violently hindered by a 3rd. The children then distributed wooden biscuits between the helper and hinderer. In Experiment 1, when distributing a small odd number of biscuits, 4½-year-olds (N = 16) almost always gave more to the helper. Children verbally justified their unequal distributions by reference to the helper's prosocial behavior or the hinderer's antisocial behavior. In Experiment 2, when biscuits were more plentiful, 4½-year-olds (N = 16) usually gave equal numbers to helper and hinderer, indicating that 4½-year-olds usually preferred not to distribute unequally unless forced to by resource scarcity. Three-year-olds (N = 16 in Experiment 1, N = 20 in Experiment 3) gave more biscuits equally often to the helper and to the hinderer. In many cases, this was because they were confused as to the identities and actions of the puppets, possibly because they were shocked by the hinderer's actions. Two fundamental moral behaviors are therefore demonstrated in young preschoolers: indirect reciprocity of morally valenced acts and a preference for equality when distributing resources, although the cognitive bases for these behaviors remain unclear. These results join other recent studies in demonstrating that the seeds of complex moral understanding and behavior are found early in development.
三岁和四岁半的儿童观看一个木偶，木偶努力实现目标，得到第二个木偶的帮助，却被第三个木偶暴力阻挠。然后，孩子们在帮助者和阻挠者之间分配木制饼干。在实验 1 中，当分配少量奇数饼干时，四岁半的儿童（N=16）几乎总是给帮助者更多。儿童通过参考帮助者的亲社会行为或阻挠者的反社会行为来证明他们不平等分配的合理性。在实验 2 中，当饼干更丰富时，四岁半的儿童（N=16）通常会给帮助者和阻挠者相等数量的饼干，表明四岁半的儿童通常不喜欢不平等分配，除非受到资源稀缺的压力。三岁的儿童（实验 1 中 N=16，实验 3 中 N=20）同样经常平等地给帮助者和阻挠者分配更多的饼干。在许多情况下，这是因为他们对木偶的身份和行为感到困惑，可能是因为他们对阻挠者的行为感到震惊。因此，在年幼的学龄前儿童中表现出两种基本的道德行为：对具有道德价值的行为的间接互惠和在分配资源时对平等的偏好，尽管这些行为的认知基础仍不清楚。这些结果与其他最近的研究一起表明，复杂的道德理解和行为的种子在发展早期就已经存在。
