Is the tendency to morally prioritize humans over animals weaker in children than adults? In two preregistered studies (total N = 622), 5- to 9-year-old children and adults were presented with moral dilemmas pitting varying numbers of humans against varying numbers of either dogs or pigs and were asked who should be saved. In both studies, children had a weaker tendency than adults to prioritize humans over animals. They often chose to save multiple dogs over one human, and many valued the life of a dog as much as the life of a human. Although they valued pigs less, the majority still prioritized 10 pigs over one human. By contrast, almost all adults chose to save one human over even 100 dogs or pigs. Our findings suggest that the common view that humans are far more morally important than animals appears late in development and is likely socially acquired.
Kryptosis on December 25th, 2020 at 14:30 UTC »
Yeah I’ve met 5-9 year olds who think a paper bag with googley eyes on it are worth more than their classmates lives...
ze_eagle on December 25th, 2020 at 12:13 UTC »
The main question I ask myself here is if it is really reasonable to assume that 5- to 9-year olds are able to grasp what "death" actually means. Most of them have probably never witnessed the death of a family member and children's shows for this age group tend not to show this kind of difficult topic.
Thinking back to when I was that age I could definitely see myself thinking of this "saving-scenario" more like "If I choose those 10 dogs, then there are 10 happy dogs more in the world" instead of "If I choose those 10 dogs, then I irreversibly took away the life of an innocent person". I think this would make it much easier to go for straight numbers instead of species.
on1chi on December 25th, 2020 at 10:47 UTC »
I’ll need to read this. I’m interested in how they presented the human being - was it a child? A parent?
I mean, children are probably more likely to pick a dog over an adult similar to their parents purely because they probably don’t think their parents are in need of assistance... the dogs are much closer to a child in that they “need to be cared for” - so I feel like it’s natural for the child to help them.