Last year, when I was writing my book, I was trying to find a source and got sidetracked reading a bunch of stuff about moral development in children (as one does)
and I was just cracking up reading it because it was like this study about children age 4-8 and the researchers showed them pictures of a child contemplating stealing candy out of another child’s coat pocket that was just left out.
And they asked them what it’s a picture of? And the kids of all ages were like “oh he’s thinking about stealing that”
And they asked them to tell them more about if that’s good/bad/etc, and the kids of all ages were like “no, stealing is bad and wrong”
And they asked them, if the kid did steal the candy, how would he feel?
And the 8yos were like, “oh, he would feel bad and guilty and wrong for doing wrong things”
And the 4yos were like, “he would feel GREAT cause he has CANDY”.
😂😂 And then there was another one with a picture of a kid calling another kid mean names as retaliation for the other kid wronging him accidentally.
And the 8yos were like, “he would feel bad that he said mean things”
And the 4yos were basically like, “he would feel like he had done an excellent job tearing that other kid a new one, good on him, that guy deserved it”
It was just so peak 4 to me!! “This action is morally wrong, yeah, for sure. Also if you did it? You would feel great. Who doesn’t want candy and retributive justice?!”
Anyway, this is far more informal than I usually write these types of posts, but it was so funny to me in such a specific niche slightly-academic way. I hear people ask little kids all the time “well how would YOU feel if HE hit YOU?” or whatever it is they did to somebody that the adult wants to make them feel bad about, and they’re internally like, “uh, yeah, obviously I’d feel bad if he hit me, because I wouldn’t deserve it. But HE deserves it so I am thoroughly justified 😊”
