Cultural Differences in Moral Justifications Enhance Understanding of Chinese and Canadian Children's Moral Decisions

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2314432
AutoresYat Laam Lau (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, autor correspondente), Catherine Ann Cameron (0000-0003-4304-8090, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada), Kai Men Chieh (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada), Jennifer O’leary (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada), Genyue Fu (0000-0003-3470-7509, Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, China), Kang Lee (0009-0005-7219-5489, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada)
Ano2013
Volume44
Fascículo3
Páginas461-477
Data de publicação2013-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Cross-Cultural Psychology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0022-0221 • E-ISSN: 1552-5422
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0022022112453315
OpenAlexW2097443281
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas10
Referências citadas24

Chinese, Chinese-Canadian, and Euro-Canadian children 7, 9, and 11 years of age were presented scenarios in which story characters either lied or told the truth to help themselves but harm a collective, or vice versa. Children classified, evaluated, and justified their evaluations of the truthful or untruthful statements in each scenario. Cultural differences emerged in the children's evaluations but were especially apparent in their justifications. Chinese children rated more positively statements that helped a collective and harmed an individual than vice versa, and they showed concerns for a group over the self when evaluating moral statements, thus reflecting collectivist inclinations. Euro-Canadian children did the reverse, demonstrating individualistic tendencies. Bicultural, Chinese-Canadian, children's judgments and justifications were situation specific, offering preliminary evidence for the possibility that bicultural individuals shift, at a relatively early age, between cultural frames in their interpretations and evaluations of moral dilemmas, depending upon the context

Collectivism · Context (archaeology · Developmental psychology · Harm · Individualism · Moral dilemma · Political science · Sociology · Child and Animal Learning Development · Cultural Differences and Values · History · Law · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology