Neural Processing of Moral Content Reflects Moral Identity in 10-Year-Old Children

Autor/inn/en	Pletti, Carolina; Decety, Jean; Paulus, Markus
Titel	Neural Processing of Moral Content Reflects Moral Identity in 10-Year-Old Children
Quelle	In: Developmental Science, 25 (2022) 4, (13 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Paulus, Markus)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1467-7687
DOI	10.1111/desc.13232
Schlagwörter	Children; Ethics; Moral Values; Self Concept; Moral Development; Cognitive Processes; Brain; Antisocial Behavior; Prosocial Behavior + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Child; Kind; Kinder; Ethik; Moral value; Ethischer Wert; Selbstkonzept; Moralische Entwicklung; Cognitive process; Kognitiver Prozess; Gehirn
Abstract	Middle childhood seems to be crucial for the emergence of a moral identity, that is, an evaluative stance of how important it is for someone's sense of self to be moral. This study investigates the effects of moral identity on the neural processing of moral content in 10-year-old children. Participants were presented with scenes portraying prosocial and antisocial behavior, while electroencephalographic responses were collected. Analyses of event-related potentials (ERPs) showed that, for children with a strong moral identity, antisocial scenes elicited a greater early posterior negativity (EPN) as compared to prosocial scenes. Thus, for children with a strong moral identity, antisocial scenes capture more attentional resources than prosocial ones in early processing stages. In contrast to previous findings with adults, the implicit moral self-concept was not related to any ERP differences. Overall, the results show that, even in its developmental emergence, moral identity relates to the neurocognitive processing of third-party moral content. Together, the study supports the social-cognitive model of the development of moral identity, according to which moral identity is based on a chronical activation of moral schemas that guide a person's perception of the social world. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01