Moral Instincts and the Problem with Reductionism: A Critical Look at the Work of Marc Hauser

In his most recent book Moral Minds, Marc Hauser argues that many foundational moral instincts have clear biological explanations. To make this argument, Hauser focuses on the similarities between the acquisition of morality and the acquisition of language. Similar to language, one learns a particular moral framework from one's environment, but the biological components necessary for moral development are universal. While I agree with Hauser's overall conclusion regarding moral instincts, I reject the notion that a purely biological analysis of morality can provide an adequate framework for justification. The problem, as I see it, is Hauser acknowledges the bottom-up influences taking place between biology and moral formation, but he refuses to account for the top-down influences that occur between metaphysical assumptions, moral beliefs, and biological conclusions. Thus, the current critique will focus on the connection between Hauser's failure to account for top-down influence and the subsequent shortcoming related to moral justification.     

References to social norms by preschool children and their linguistic expression

The study is based on the domain approach to the social norms and it investigated whether preschool children's references to social norms are related to their language expression. Children aged 3;8–7;5 years (N = 73; 35 boys and 38 girls) participated and were video-recorded playing in triads for 20 minutes. The norms mentioned were coded as moral or conventional rules according to Piotrowski's (1997 Piotrowski, C. 1997. Rules of everyday family life: The development of social rules in mother–child and sibling relationships. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 21: 571–598. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) coding system. Older children and more talkative children mention more conventional rules (p < .05 and p < .001, respectively); boys tend to refer to moral rules more often than girls, yet the use of moral rules was not influenced by age or talkativeness of the child. This supports the idea that children treat social norms of different domains differently: the use of moral rules does not seem to be influenced by the characteristics of the child, while the references to conventional rules depend on the age and talkativeness of the child.     

Children's and adolescents' narratives of guilt: Antecedents and mentalization

In this study, situational antecedents and mentalization of guilt were examined by asking children and adolescents for written narratives. The sample of 240 participants, aged between 9 years and 15 years 6 months, was divided into two groups of 120 children (M = 9 years and 7 months; SD = 0.4) and 120 adolescents (M = 14 years and 7 months; SD = 0.4). Participants displayed typical development, were recruited at schools in Milan city, and came from middle-class backgrounds. There was an equal number of males and females in each of the two age groups. Both content analysis for antecedents and mental states language analysis for mentalization were applied to the texts. We found that the distribution of guilt antecedents varied as a function of age, and only in the adolescent group as a function of gender. We also found that the use of mental states language varied very significantly with age, but not with gender. The results support the idea that in the transition from childhood to adolescence antecedents shift their focus from externalizing behaviours to internal thoughts and intentions; in addition, a more advanced ability to represent and reflect on the experience of feeling guilty is acquired.     

The development of children’s sympathy,moral emotion attributions,and moral reasoning in two cultures

The current study investigated the development of children’s sympathy, moral emotion attributions, and moral reasoning in two cultures: Chile and Switzerland. One hundred seventy-six children in two age groups (i.e., 6 and 9 years old) were asked to report their sympathy. Moral emotion attributions and moral reasoning were measured using two hypothetical moral transgressions (i.e., omitting a prosocial duty, stealing from another child). Younger Chilean children reported higher levels of sympathy than younger Swiss children. Across cultures, older children attributed more moral emotions than did younger children. Younger Swiss children used more moral reasoning following judgements about rule violations than did younger Chilean children. The findings are discussed from both a developmental and cross-cultural perspective.     

The evolved developmental niche and child sociomoral outcomes in Chinese 3-year-olds

Responsive parenting is known to lead to multiple positive child outcomes, including sociomoral development. We examined the extent to which additional caregiving practices are also critical for positive sociomoral outcomes in early childhood. We looked specifically at what we call the evolved developmental niche (EDN), as described for young children by anthropologists, which includes frequent touch, breastfeeding, caregiver responsiveness, multiple adult caregivers, play, and natural childbirth. We collected behaviour and attitude data on these practices from 383 mothers of 3-year-olds in China using a self-report maternal survey. Mothers also completed standardized measures of their child's behaviour regulation, empathy, and conscience. We found significant effects for most caregiving practices and attitudes on child outcomes after controlling for maternal income and education, and most effects remained significant after controlling for responsivity. These findings suggest that practices representative of the evolved developmental niche may be important, above and beyond responsivity alone, for fostering sociomoral development.     

Moral emotions and the development of the moral self in childhood

Researchers have been emphasizing the importance of moral emotions for young children's moral self. However, the relationship between children's moral self and moral emotions has never been investigated empirically. The present study examined the relationship between children's self-representations about (im)moral behaviour and moral emotions attributions in a sample of 132 elementary-school children (M _age = 8.39 years, SD = 2.50). Participants were presented a newly developed moral self measure, along with a measure of moral emotion attributions. Two dimensions of children's moral self-concept were identified: preference for prosocial behaviour and avoidance of antisocial behaviour. Results revealed a slight decrease in preference for prosocial behaviour with age, as well as an increased correlation between preference for prosocial behaviour and moral emotion attributions. Overall, findings suggest that moral emotions do not play a pivotal role for young children's moral self-concept. Children's moral self-concept becomes increasingly coordinated with moral emotions as they approach adolescence.     

Shame and guilt development in preschoolers: The role of context,audience and individual characteristics

The study examined the early development of shame and guilt, the individual differences related to them and the role of situation and audience. Fifty-eight children aged 3 to 5 years were observed in two paradigms: moral, in which they were led to believe that they had broken an object, and non-moral, in which they failed an easy task. Each session was led twice, with an adult and with a peer. Temperament and conduct were assessed through parental reports. Results showed that older children expressed more guilt than younger children. Shame-proneness was characterized by bodily tension, reticence and gaze avoidance, whereas guilt-proneness by latency to repair and confession. Children were able to distinguish the moral from the non-moral situation and, only in the former, shame was associated with difficult temperament and with emotional problems, whereas guilt was correlated with adaptive characteristics. Finally, children mainly expressed distress with the adult, who holds the authority.     

Describing and testing an intermediate concept measure of adolescent moral thinking

This paper describes the development and preliminary testing of an intermediate concept measure (ICM) of moral thinking for adolescent populations. First proposed by Rest and Narvaez (1994), intermediate concepts are described as more context specific than moral stages defined within the Kohlberg tradition, but are more abstract than assessments of codes of conduct. The process of developing the adolescent ICM is described and data are presented to provide initial support for the measure. Results indicate that the adolescent ICM can distinguish age educational groups across high school and individuals who are acting out in school achieved significantly lower scores than all other students. In addition, ICM scores are related to Defining Issues Test scores providing preliminary support for the claim that both measures assess the moral domain. Coupled with the respectable psychometric properties of the measure, these findings support the adolescent ICM as a measure of moral thinking in adolescent populations and as a potential outcome measure for character education programmes.     

Sociomoral reasoning in children and adolescents from two collectivistic cultures

This study compared the sociomoral reasoning of 7-, 9-, 12-, and 15-year-old children and adolescents of two collectivistic cultures in the 1990s: Spain (horizontal collectivism; N = 208) and Russia (vertical collectivism; N = 247). Participants reasoned about choices and moral justifications of a protagonist in a sociomoral dilemma where participants can focus on different moral and non-moral concerns (e.g., going with their best friend, going with a new classmate or trying to do something with both). Results support previous research in western societies: participants tend to choose the option “visiting the best friend”, and self-interest tends to decrease with age whereas altruism tends to increase. Moreover, Spanish participants tended to consider all parties involved in the dilemma (i.e., old friend and new classmate), whereas Russian participants did not. These results are discussed in light of their differences as horizontal and vertical collectivistic societies. Overall, the results open an avenue for new studies when comparing the effects of culture on children's and adolescents' development.     

Adolescents' preferences for organ allocation: The role of empathy and altruism in allocation judgments

Distributive justice reasoning in adolescence, regarding the allocation of scarce medical resources, has not been thoroughly studied yet. The present study aimed to explore adolescents' preferences for organ allocation, the ethical principles that form bioethical judgments in adolescence, as well as the role of empathy and altruism in the formation of those judgments. One hundred fifty one adolescents (90 females) aged between 12 and 19 years old participated in the study. Participants were asked to suggest the criteria that should be considered in the construction of transplant waiting lists, to evaluate adults' preferable criteria and to justify their judgments. Results indicate that utilitarianism and egalitarianism were both used to form allocation judgments. Ingroup favouritism was also observed. Age differences in adolescents' preferences were witnessed, but no age effect were found regarding the principles that form participants' judgments. Aspects of empathy and altruism seemed to associate with certain allocation criteria.