Children Who Choose Not to Eat Meat

A Study of Early Moral Decision‐making

Bibliographic Data

ID12686371
AuthorsKaren M Hussar (Harvard University Press, corresponding author), Paul L Harris (0000-0003-4907-0539, Harvard University Press)
Year2009
Volume19
Issue3
Pages627-641
Publication date2009-05-13
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Development (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1467-9507 • E-ISSN: 0961-205X
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9507.2009.00547.x
OpenAlexW1867761893
LanguageEN
Citations received34
References cited14

Can young children frame their own choices in terms of moral considerations, particularly when those choices do not match the practices of immediate authority figures? To answer this question, we studied 6‐ to 10‐year‐old independent vegetarians—children who have elected to become vegetarians, despite being raised in non‐vegetarian families. In Study 1, these children were asked about their reasons for not eating meat; their replies were compared with those made by vegetarian children from vegetarian families (family vegetarians) and non‐vegetarian children from non‐vegetarian families (non‐vegetarians). Unlike the other two groups, independent vegetarians universally focused on the suffering that meat eating implies for animals but, surprisingly, they did not condemn others for meat eating. Study 2 attempted to explain this tolerance by examining if children focus on whether an individual has made a commitment to not eating meat. All three groups of children condemned meat eating by morally committed vegetarians, but not by those who have made no such commitment. The two studies show that independent vegetarians are committed to not eating meat on moral grounds and judge that it would be wrong to break that commitment. Nevertheless, like non‐vegetarian children, they remain tolerant toward people who have made no such commitment

Developmental psychology · Eating behavior · Obesity · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Medicine · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology