Development of understanding of intentionality and moral judgments in preschoolers

Abstract

To explore the development of preschoolers' understanding of intentionality and moral judgments, we administered 3 tasks (classic intentionality, skill intentionality, and awareness intentionality) to 344 children aged between 3 and 6 years. The results showed that children's understanding of intentionality and moral judgments developed with increasing age. That is, the intentionality and moral judgments made by 3- to 5-year-olds were generally based on behavioral outcomes. In contrast, 6-year-old children started to make judgments by combining behavioral outcomes with intentionality conditions, which meant that they had started to consider different factors so as to analyze and judge the intentionality and morality of behaviors objectively. The developmental trajectory of intentionality and morality revealed by our study provides theoretical support for guiding children's intentionality and moral judgments.