Hypothetical and Practical Reasoning: Children's Persuasive Appeals in Different Social Contexts

BEARISON, DAVID J., and GAss, STEPHEN T. Hypothetical and Practical Reasoning: Children's Persuasive Appeals in Different Social Contexts. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1979, 50, 901-903. The purpose of the present study was to assess contextual effects on children's levels of social reasoning. Children between the ages of 10 and 113 years were given a problem in interpersonal persuasion in either a practical or a hypothetical context. Children in the practical context exhibited higher levels of perspectivism than those in the hypothetical context. The findings were discussed in terms of an interaction between context and domains of social reasoning and its implications for generalizing findings based on hypothetical social dilemmas to naturally occurring social situations.