Children’s Consideration of Motivation in Evaluations of Socially (Un)mindful Actions

Previous research shows that both adults and children by age 5 and 6 appreciate socially-mindful actions where one leaves a choice for others. However, less is known as to whether children consider motivations in their evaluations of socially (un)mindful actions. Here we investigate whether children and adults can spontaneously evaluate socially (un)mindful behaviors depending on contextual cues, specifically whether the actions happen in public or in private. We also investigate how children evaluate these actions when provided with explicit information on motivations. We presented 99 children (ages 6-11) and 99 adults in China with two characters performing the same socially mindful or unmindful behaviors. One character acted publicly, while the other acted privately. Participants were asked to compare the two characters, first spontaneously and then again after explicit information on the characters’ motivations was provided. We found that, while adults spontaneously favor private socially mindful acts, children, by contrast, favor public socially mindful acts. Only after motivations were provided did children favor private socially mindful acts like adults did. Additionally, we found asymmetry, in that motivation seems to matter more in evaluations of socially mindful actions than in evaluations of socially unmindful ones. These findings are the first to reveal children’s consideration of motivations in their evaluations of socially mindful behaviors.