Attribution of Responsibility in Ambiguous Moral Judgment Situations

Summary One hundred twenty boys and girls, 30 from each age group 10, 12, 14, and 16 years, passed judgments of the relative naughtiness of two characters that were associated with different harmful consequences of acts. Causation of consequences was not explicitly described. A majority of S s in all age groups judged without enquiring into the causation. A majority of 10-year-old S s judged on the basis of consequences (objective responsibility), while a majority of older S s judged according to assumptions about intentions (subjective responsibility). The interpretation was that use of intentionality in judgment for the age span in question was inaccurate and premature in relation to what was objectively given. The study implies a critique of Piaget's interpretations of moral judgment development, as well as of his assessment of decentration in subject-subject relations.