Institute of Psychological Science, Hangzhou Normal University.
Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego.
Dev Psychol. 2020 Jun;56(6):1073-1079. doi: 10.1037/dev0000933. Epub 2020 Apr 20.
Although there is widespread acknowledgment that children acquire social and moral values during development via socialization processes, few plausible mechanisms have been systematically evaluated. In the present research, we examine the effectiveness of 1 potential mechanism: overheard conversations about the moral behavior of others. We examine this issue with reference to the important social value of honesty. Across 3 preregistered studies, preschool-age children in China (total = 276) were presented with a version of the temptation resistance paradigm in which they were first given an opportunity to cheat by peeking at the answer in a guessing game and were then asked whether they had cheated. Study 1 included both 3- and 5-year-olds, and Studies 2 and 3 included 5-year-olds only. In Study 1 children were more likely to truthfully confess to peeking if they had previously overheard 2 adults say that another child's confession made them happy. An increase in truthful confessions was also seen in Study 2, even though this time the adult who asked about peeking had not been present for the overheard conversation. In Study 3, children were presented with an overheard conversation that lacked any emotion-related language, and the effect was seen once again. Taken together, these findings suggest that overheard conversations can be used to promote truth telling. More broadly, the findings suggest that children realize the attitudes adults express about others can have implications for their own behavior and can identify these attitudes, even when they are not the target of the communication. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
尽管人们普遍承认，儿童在发展过程中通过社会化过程获得社会和道德价值观，但很少有合理的机制得到系统评估。在本研究中，我们考察了一种潜在机制的有效性：听到他人道德行为的对话。我们参考诚实这一重要的社会价值观来探讨这个问题。在 3 项预先注册的研究中，中国的学龄前儿童（共 276 名）参与了抵制诱惑范式的测试，他们首先有机会通过偷看猜谜游戏的答案来作弊，然后被问到是否作弊。研究 1 包括 3 岁和 5 岁的儿童，研究 2 和研究 3 只包括 5 岁的儿童。在研究 1 中，如果儿童之前听到 2 个成年人说另一个孩子的坦白让他们感到高兴，他们更有可能诚实地承认偷看。在研究 2 中也观察到了真实坦白的增加，尽管这次询问偷看的成年人没有在场听到对话。在研究 3 中，儿童被呈现出一段没有任何与情感相关的语言的听到的对话，这种效果再次出现。综上所述，这些发现表明，听到的对话可以用来促进诚实。更广泛地说，这些发现表明，儿童意识到成年人对他人表达的态度可能对他们自己的行为产生影响，并能识别这些态度，即使他们不是沟通的对象。（PsycInfo 数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。
