Marshall Julia, Wilks Matti, Caviola Lucius, Neldner Karri
Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Nat Hum Behav. 2025 May 28. doi: 10.1038/s41562-025-02212-7.
Many people believe that our 'moral circle' expands as we grow up. We first care for family members and friends, then gradually extend this care to distant others. Some scholars argue that this presumed broadening of moral concern is driven by our increasing capacity to recognize, through reason, that the suffering of strangers matters as much as the suffering of those we love. Yet, recent research complicates this story. In several domains, younger children start out with a more expansive moral circle than older children and adults. Younger children are more likely than their older counterparts to judge relationally, physically and phylogenetically distant others as worthy of help or protection. These findings suggest, counterintuitively, that development may not widen our moral circle but may sometimes narrow it. This Perspective raises the possibility that, rather than focusing on overcoming biases against caring for distant others, we should also recognize that, in some domains, we possess an early-emerging tendency to care for them.
许多人认为，随着我们长大，我们的“道德圈”会不断扩大。我们首先关心家人和朋友，然后逐渐将这种关怀扩展到关系较远的其他人。一些学者认为，这种假定的道德关怀范围的扩大，是由我们通过理性越来越能够认识到陌生人的痛苦与我们所爱的人的痛苦一样重要所驱动的。然而，最近的研究使这个故事变得复杂。在几个领域中，年幼儿童一开始的道德圈比年长儿童和成年人更广泛。与年龄较大的同龄人相比，年幼儿童更有可能从关系、身体和系统发育的角度判断关系较远的其他人值得帮助或保护。这些发现反直觉地表明，发展可能不会扩大我们的道德圈，反而有时会使其缩小。这一观点提出了一种可能性，即我们不仅应该关注克服对关心关系较远的其他人的偏见，还应该认识到，在某些领域，我们有一种早期出现的关心他们的倾向。
