Children’s Intention Judgment Under Different Norms: The Side-Effect Effect

Abstract

Abstract: The present study examined whether preschoolers could use a rational strategy to infer the mental state of the protagonist under different norms. Preschoolers accepted a “reward and punishment task” after judging the behavior intention of the protagonist. Their judgment of “with or without” intention and the number of stars assigned to the protagonist were the indicators of side-effect effect. Results showed that: 1) preschoolers performed equally well in the judgment of “with or without” intention for the behaviors that brought about the positive and negative “side effects”; 2) they tended to reward the actor who brought about positive “side effects” more stars than those who brought about negative “side effects”; 3) the influence of “side effects” valence on distributive behavior was consistent among four-, five-, and six-year-old children; 4) the influence of side-effect valence on distributive behavior of four-, five-, and six-year-old children was also consistent under both moral and conventional norms. These results indicate that: 1) The number of assigning stars is a more sensitive indicator to study the intention judgment of young children. 2) Young children judge the behaviors that violated the norms as intentional while judging the behaviors that conformed to the norms as unintentional. Moreover, this kind of asymmetrical inference is stable among four- to six-year-olds. In addition, there is no difference of such performance across different norms. 3) The results provide support for the rational accounts view of side-effect effect for the intentional judgment.

Key words: side-effect effect, intentional judgment, norms, rationality accounts

摘要： 在幼儿对主人公的行为意图做出判断后加入奖惩任务，用意图“有无”判断和星星分配的数量作为考察“副作用”效应的指标，探讨幼儿在不同规范标准下能否利用理性策略对主人公的心理状态进行推断。结果发现：（1）幼儿对带来积极和消极“副作用”的行为意图“有无”判断没有差异；（2）相比于消极“副作用”，幼儿倾向于给带来积极“副作用”的行为者分配更多的星星作为奖励；（3）“副作用”效价对4、5、6岁幼儿分配行为的影响是一致的；（4）在道德规范标准和约定规范标准下，“副作用”效价对4、5、6岁幼儿分配行为的影响是一致的。结果表明：（1）使用星星分配数量作为指标考察幼儿的行为意图判断更敏感。（2）幼儿会把违背规范的行为推断为有意的，遵守规范的行为推断为无意的。且这种表现在4～6岁之间具有稳定性。不同规范标准下，幼儿的这一表现没有差异。（3）研究结果支持了意图判断“副作用”效应的理性推理观点。

关键词: 副作用效应, 意图判断, 规范标准, 理性推理

CLC Number:

B844

LIU Xiping, YUN Yifei, CHAI Kaixuan, LI Nan, TANG Weihai. Children’s Intention Judgment Under Different Norms: The Side-Effect Effect[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior, 2021, 19(2): 237-243.

刘希平, 云薏霏, 柴凯轩, 李楠, 唐卫海. 幼儿在不同规范标准下的意图判断：“副作用”效应[J]. 心理与行为研究, 2021, 19(2): 237-243.

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