SRH University of Applied Health Sciences Gera, 07548 Gera, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 Nov;187:104652. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.06.005. Epub 2019 Jul 22.
Children's moral behavior is guided, in part, by adults teaching children how to treat others. However, when circumstances change, such instructions may become either unhelpful or limiting. In the current study, 48 dyads of 5-year-olds played a collaborative game and either (a) received an instruction by an adult to share the spoils of the game equally, (b) did not receive any instruction (but still chose to share equally), or (c) agreed between themselves on a rule to share equally. Afterward, each child played with a new partner who was needier or worked harder in his or her collaboration and so plausibly deserved more than just half of the spoils. Results showed that children who were instructed by an adult shared less with their more deserving partner than children who did not receive any instruction. Thus, moral instruction by adults may, in some circumstances, make children more rigid in their moral decisions.
儿童的道德行为在一定程度上受到成人教导他们如何对待他人的引导。然而，当环境发生变化时，这些指示可能变得无益或具有局限性。在当前的研究中，48 对 5 岁的儿童玩了一个合作游戏，要么（a）接受成人的指示，要求公平分配游戏的奖励，要么（b）没有收到任何指示（但仍然选择公平分配），要么（c）自行商定公平分配的规则。之后，每个孩子都与一个新的伙伴一起玩，这个新伙伴在合作中更需要或更努力，因此更值得得到不仅仅是一半的奖励。结果表明，受到成人指导的儿童与更值得的伙伴分享的奖励比没有收到任何指导的儿童要少。因此，成人的道德指导在某些情况下可能会使儿童在道德决策上更加僵化。
