Lee

• What was the background?

  • Previous research had a Western focus and a general focus on individualistic cultures. In collectivist cultures, children assess lie telling in a different way 
  • Chinese children are taught that honesty and modesty are important. They are taught to be truthful and report misdeeds and not to brag about prosocial deeds
• What were the aims?

  • To investigate and cross culturally test the effect of culture on children’s moral evaluations of lying and truth telling by comparing children from individualistic and collectivist cultures 

  1. To see if in prosocial situations there would be a cultural difference. Would Chinese children rate truth telling less positively and lie telling less negatively than Canadian children? 
  2. Would this difference increase with age due to continued exposure to cultural norms? 
  3. Would there be no difference in antisocial situations? 
• What is the sample?

  China: 120 Chinese children 

  Age groups 7, 9, 11 

  From the main cultural and educational capitals of China 

   

  Canada: 

  108 Canadian children 

  Age groups 7, 9, 11 

  From smaller province in Canada Fredriction more known for industry 
• What were the IVs?

  1. Type of story – social or physical story ----> Lab experiment, independent measures 
  2. Type of story – prosocial or antisocial -----> Lab experiment, repeated measures 
  3. Age groups – Ages 7, 9, 11 -----> Quasi, cross sectional 
  4. Culture – China or Canada ------> Quasi, cross cultural 
• What were the types of story?

  Social – half of the children had stories where the deed affected another child 

  Physical – half of the children had stories with the deed including a physical object 

  Prosocial – in 2 stories the child intentionally does a good deed 

  Antisocial – in 2 stories the child intentionally does a bad deed 

  Lying or truth telling – child in story either lies or tells the truth when questioned by the teacher 

   

  1. Prosocial + truth telling 
  2. Prosocial + lie telling 
  3. Antisocial + truth telling 
  4. Antisocial + lie telling 
• What was the DV?

  • Rating given to the story character’s deed and to what the character said using a 7 point rating scale (self report) 

  Very, very good --------> Very, very bad 
• What was the procedure?

  • Randomly assigned to social or physical story, tested individually and had the rating system explained to them (control) 
  • Each child was then read 4 stories (physical or social) - being read the story is a control 
  • The child was asked “Is what the child did good or naughty?” 
  • Child responded verbally or non-verbally or both on the rating chart 
  • The 2nd section was read to them and the child was asked “Is what the child said to his teacher good or naughty?” 
• Results: Was there a difference in gender?

  • No
• Results: Prosocial truth telling story

  • No cultural differences 
  • Children from both cultures dealt with prosocial behaviours similarly and rated truth telling situations positively 
  • Chinese children’s ratings became less positive with age whereas Canadian children showed no age related changes 
• Results: Prosocial lie telling story

  • Canadian children in general rate lie telling in this situation negatively 
  • Whereas Chinese children ratings changed from negative to positive with age 
• Results: Antisocial truth telling story

  • No significant cross cultural differences 
  • Children from both cultures dealt with antisocial behaviours similarly
  • They all rated truth telling in antisocial situations positively 
• Results: Antisocial lie telling story

  • All children rated lie telling in antisocial situations negatively and in both cultures negative ratings increased with age 
• Results: Type of story

  • There was a significant difference between social and physical stories for 7 year old children
• Results: Cultural differences

  • Chinese children rated truth telling in prosocial situations less positively and rated lie telling in prosocial situations more positively than Canadian children 
  • There were age related changes with Chinese children whose ratings went from negative to positive in the prosocial lie telling situation, suggesting the cultural emphasis on modesty and honesty has an impact and moral judgements through socialisation at school 
• Results: Cultural similarities

  • Both cultures distinguish between deeds and verbal statements 
  • Both gave negative ratings to lie telling in antisocial situations 
  • Both gave positive ratings to truth telling in antisocial situations and negative ratings in antisocial lie telling situations  
  • This shows that children can distinguish between lie telling and the misconduct 

   
• Results: Qualitative comments

  • Asked why they gave certain ratings 
  • In prosocial truth telling stories, Chinese children gave increased negative ratings and when asked why they said the child was begging for teacher’s praise which is specifically discouraged in Chinese schools 
  • In prosocial lie telling stories Chinese children gave increasingly positive ratings and most children said that a person should not leave their name after doing a good deed or at least not tell the teacher 
• What were the conclusions?

  • Moral development is culturally different  
  • Moral rules are known explicitly within a culture but not the reasons 
  • Children develop moral judgement from the social norms of their culture and sociocultural practices