Marshall

Research Questions:
- Do children and adults believe that social relationships influence prosocial obligations?
- How does development and culture shape intuitions about these obligations?
Previous Findings:
- Adults often believe only kin and close others have obligations to help.
- Providing help to strangers is usually considered as supererogatory.
- Some philosophers argue for special obligations to family and friends (Haidt & Baron, 1996; Aquinas, 1948).
- Others advocate for impartial obligations extending to all sentient beings (Singer, 1981).
Evolutionary Perspective:
- Evolutionary forces suggest that humans are wired to behave altruistically toward kin (kin selection) and promote reciprocal altruism within close relations.
- However, the evolutionary rationale for obligations toward strangers remains less clear (Dawkins, 2016).

Total Sample Size: 1140 participants across two studies.
Age Range: Children aged 5-10 years and various adult populations in five countries (Germany, India, Japan, Uganda, United States).
Goals of the Studies:
- Examine the reasoning patterns of children and adults concerning prosocial obligations across different social relationships and cultural contexts.

Investigate if children in the U.S. judge individuals based on their prosocial obligations toward close relationships (family, friends) versus strangers.

Participants: 102 children (5-9 years) and 25 adults (over 18) from Amazon Mechanical Turk (predominantly White).
Materials: Two scenarios (Playground and Fair) presented to evaluate prosocial obligations based on relationships (parent, friend, stranger).
Procedure: Children listened to stories and were asked comprehension and judgment questions regarding obligations ("have to help") and evaluations ("was he mean?").

Obligation Judgments:
- Linear mixed-effects models indicated significant interactions between age and social relationships.
- Younger children displayed less discriminatory obligation judgments while older children favored obligations primarily towards parents over friends and strangers.

Younger children's reasoning is broader, viewing all individuals as obligated to assist others in need.
Older children and adults differ significantly, indicating a shift in reasoning about who is obligated to help.

Extend the research to include cultural contexts outside the U.S. (Germany, India, Japan, Uganda) to explore cross-cultural variability in prosocial obligations.

Participants: 592 children (5-10 years) across countries; 446 adults from similar cultural backgrounds.
Procedure: Participants engaged with similar stories but were assessed individually to avoid diffusion of responsibility effects among potential helpers.

Cultural Variability:
- Young children across different cultures maintained a broader view of prosocial obligations.
- Distinct cultural patterns emerged relating to prosocial obligations among adults in various settings, showcasing how cultural differences influence judgments.

Developmental trajectories in children’s views on prosocial obligations shift towards narrower interpretations based on relationship closeness as they age and are influenced by cultural contexts.
Cultural distinctions affect the emergence of moral reasoning, emphasizing that notions of obligation may vary significantly between collectivistic and individualistic societies.

Results challenge prior assumptions that moral obligations begin narrow and expand.
Findings imply children may start with a broad moral outlook that becomes more selective through social and cultural exposure.
Implications for understanding human altruism and the nuanced ways in which social relationships influence moral judgments.

The studies provide evidence that children’s inherent reasoning about social obligations declines in breadth as they mature. The findings remain robust across varying analyses and suggest a need for further exploration into how cultural dynamics shape children’s sense of obligation.