Moral disengagement is a cognitive mechanism that seeks to avoid the feeling of guilt in the face of transgressive behaviors and seems to be present in behaviors such as cyberbullying, cybergossip or bullying in adolescence. Few studies have explored this connection in the primary school years, even though gossip, bullying and cyberbullying are…

Evaluating other people's moral character is a crucial social cognitive task. However, the cognitive processes by which people seek out, prioritize, and integrate multiple pieces of character-relevant information have not been studied empirically. The first aim of this research was to examine which character traits are considered most important…

Effects of cuteness-perception on individual cognition, emotion, behavior have significant implications for moral education. On the one hand, cuteness perception will make individuals think that moral violations are more serious and lead to tougher moral judgments; on the other hand, cuteness perception can activate moral emotions such as…

Character development in higher education is a complex process. This process has often been delegated to a single course on ethics or courses on religion. The authors of this article pose an alternative higher educational process whereby character development is rooted in a series of abilities that are contextualized throughout the entire…

This article addresses the question of why the emotions children and adolescents anticipate in the context of hypothetical scenarios have been repeatedly found to predict actual (im)moral behavior. It argues that a common motivational account of this relationship is insufficient. Instead, three links are proposed that connect cognitive…

Evolutionary theories of morality, beginning with Darwin, have focused on explanations for altruism. More generally, these accounts have concentrated on conscience (self-regulatory mechanisms) to the neglect of condemnation (mechanisms for punishing others). As a result, few theoretical tools are available for understanding the rapidly…

As role models, mentors serve as moral exemplars to their proteges. Yet, since the mentoring literature gives scant attention to the mentor's role in protege moral education, mentors are largely unwitting participants in this process. Grounded in research from moral psychology and philosophy, this article provides guidance to mentors who want to…

Article investigated the extent it is both possible and desirable to instruct others in moral judgment. (Editor/RK)

A pervasive and persistent subjectivist slogan concerning the nature of right action, uttered most commonly by new students of moral philosophy, is stated and its absurdity exposed. (Editor)

Information integration in judgments of deservingness and fair shares was studied in three experiments with 76 children from four to eight years of age. Even the youngest children had a well-developed sense of equity, and no age trends were found in this respect. (Author/MP)

Challenges studies supporting Kohlberg's claim of invariance in the development of moral judgment which maintain that subjects' preferred responses to moral dilemmas are based on higher stages of thinking. Findings indicate language rather than levels of thinking is a significant factor in subjects' response preferences. (CM)

This paper presents a study of children's abilities to make inferences about an actor's plans and to use these inferences to assign blame and praise. Preschool children were presented with eight stories combining good and bad intentions with final outcomes that were either intended or accidental (foreseeable or unforeseeable side effects). Results…

Investigates immanent justice decisions in 72 children at three grade levels (kindergarten, second, and fourth). The children were asked to evaluate behavior-accidental event sequences that represented all possible combinations of good or bad prior behavior followed by a lucky or unlucky event. (SS)

Assesses children's ability to coordinate information in the context of perspective taking and moral judgment tasks and tests the assumption that both perspective taking and moral judgment involve a common decentering process. Subjects were first and third graders. (MP)

The application of information integration concepts to judicial, political and moral judgments is discussed. The authors describe how the information integration theory can provide a unitary treatment of judgement on both conception and quantitative levels. The decision-making processes involved in the courtroom setting, political choice, and…