Morality Play ~ Science News
[I]t comes as a surprise that the village boy ranks reasoning as the mother's best tactic for setting Xiaoming straight. His explanation: Someone who knocks down other children needs prodding from Mom to realize how it feels to be bullied...
[I]t comes as a surprise that the village boy ranks reasoning as the mother's best tactic for setting Xiaoming straight. His explanation: Someone who knocks down other children needs prodding from Mom to realize how it feels to be bullied...
Other rural Chinese kids, as well as city children in China and Canada, generally agree with the village boy's opinions, says psychologist Charles Helwig of the University of Toronto. His new findings support the idea that universal concerns among children -- such as a need to feel in control of one's behavior and disapproval of harming others -- shape moral development far more than cultural values do.
"It's remarkable how little cultural variation we have found in developmental patterns of moral reasoning," says Helwig, who presented his results in Park City, Utah, at the recent annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society.
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