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Running head: NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 1
The influence of agents’ negligence in shaping younger and older adults’ moral judgment
Francesco Margoni
Janet Geipel
Constantinos Hadjichristidis
Luca Surian
The article is accepted for publication in Cognitive Development – 19 December 2018
Author Note
Francesco Margoni and Luca Surian, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences,
University of Trento. Janet Geipel, Department of Psychology, The University of Chicago.
Constantinos Hadjichristidis, Department of Economics and Management, University of Trento,
and Centre for Decision Research, Leeds University Business School, University of Leeds.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Francesco Margoni,
University of Trento, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences, E-mail:
francesco.margoni@unitn.it, or to Janet Geipel, Department of Psychology, The University of
Chicago, E-mail: jgeipel@uchicago.edu
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 2
Abstract
This study examined age-related differences in the use of negligence information in moral
judgment. A group of younger adults (18–36 years) and a group of older adults (75–98 years)
were presented with a series of scenarios illustrating cases where an agent unintentionally causes
harm. The scenarios also specified whether or not the agent acted with negligence. Participants
were asked to rate how morally wrong was the agent’s action. We found that older participants
condemned the agents of accidental harms regardless of whether they acted with negligence,
whereas younger participants condemned only the agents that acted with negligence.
Subsequently, participants were presented with an accidental harm scenario in which negligence
information was omitted, and were asked to morally evaluate the agent’s action and to rate the
extent to which the agent could be accused of negligence. Compared to younger adults, older
adults condemned the agent’s action more severely and rated the agent as more negligent. These
results suggest that aging is associated with an increased tendency to assume that accidental
harmdoers are negligent. This bias may help explain the intent-to-outcome shift occurring in old
adults’ moral judgment.
Keywords: moral judgment, negligence, intention, older adults, cognition
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 3
The influence of agents’ negligence in shaping younger and older adults’ moral judgment
People morally evaluate human actions by attending to both their external outcomes and
the underlying intentions. However, the relative weight people assign to these types of
information changes throughout the lifespan. Classical works in the developmental literature
suggest that young children attend more to outcomes than to intentions whereas older children
show the opposite bias (Piaget, 1932). More recently, studies have shown that older adults
manifest a reversal of this developmental shift (Margoni, Geipel, Hadjichristidis, & Surian, 2018;
Moran, Jolly, & Mitchell, 2012). For example, when presented with a case of accidental harm
(unintentionally harming someone), older adults tended to morally condemn the agent that was
causally responsible for the harm, suggesting that their attention was focused more on the
presence of a negative outcome than on the absence of a negative intention. By contrast, younger
adults tended to focus more on intention, exculpating agents who accidentally caused harm
(Cushman, 2008, 2013). Thus, while during childhood we observe an outcome-to-intent shift, in
old age we observe an intent-to-outcome shift.
Apart from intentions and outcomes, mature moral reasoners also pay attention to
negligence. It is often said that an agent was negligent if he or she acted without due care
(Alicke, 1992, 2000; Enzle & Hawking, 1992; Monroe & Malle, 2017; Schleifer, Shultz, &
Lefebvre-Pinard, 1983; Shultz & Wright, 1985; Shultz, Wright, & Schleifer, 1986; Siegal &
Peterson, 1998). If someone unintentionally caused a bad outcome but acted with negligence,
adults tend to morally condemn the agent despite the absence of a bad intention. The aims of the
present study were: (a) to investigate age-related differences in the tendency to take negligence
into account by comparing average moral wrongness and punishment judgments of a group of
younger adults to those of a group of older adults, and (b) to assess whether these differences
help explain age-related differences in the tendency to take intention and outcome into account.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 4
The outcome-to-intent shift occurs during the later preschool years: the majority of
studies which used tasks that require a verbal response indicate that it is only by the age of five
years that most children display the ability to express intent-based moral judgments (e.g.,
Cushman, Sheketoff, Wharton, & Carey, 2013; Margoni & Surian, 2017; Nobes, Panagiotaki, &
Bartholomew, 2016; though see Nobes, Panagiotaki, & Engelhardt, 2017). However, studies
using non-verbal response measures (see Margoni & Surian, 2018) have revealed that even
infants show sensitivity to intention (e.g., Hamlin, 2013; Woo, Steckler, Le, & Hamlin, 2017).
How can these results be reconciled? According to a recent account, the expression view, these
divergent results are due to differences in the processing demands associated with verbal and
non-verbal tasks. Namely, verbal tasks are more taxing on young preschoolers’ limited cognitive
capacity than non-verbal tasks (Margoni & Surian, 2016).
More specifically, the expression view holds that the apparent outcome-to-intent shift
documented on verbal-response tasks is due to developmental changes in theory of mind or
executive functioning skills (see also Buon, Seara-Cardoso, & Viding, 2016). Thus, changes
occurring outside the moral domain both early (Garon, Bryson, & Smith, 2008; Slaughter, 2015)
and later in life (Henry, Phillips, Ruffman, & Bailey, 2013; Reuter-Lorenz & Sylvester, 2005;
Salthouse, 2004), for example changes in executive functioning skills, may help explain the
developmental trajectory of the use of intention and outcome information throughout the lifespan
(Margoni et al., 2018; see also Chen & Blanchard-Fields, 2000; Ligneaur-Herve & Mullet, 2005;
Pratt, Diessner, Pratt, Hunsberger, & Pancer, 1996). In particular, both younger preschoolers and
older adults may find it difficult to suppress cues concerning action outcomes, while older
children and younger adults may possess sufficient skills to inhibit the prepotent outcome-based
response in favor of an intent-based response (Buon, Jacob, Loissel, & Dupoux, 2013).
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 5
Another factor that has been considered useful in accounting for the outcome-to-intent
shift is the child’s attribution of negligence to agents (Nobes et al., 2017). Nobes, Panagiotaki
and Pawson (2009) suggested that younger preschoolers condemn accidental harms not simply
because they focus on the negative outcomes, but because they over-attribute negligence to the
accidental transgressor. To the extent that this account is right, the outcome-to-intent shift may
be a misnomer, as it may simply reflect a developmental change in the inferences young children
make about negligence. Specifically, as they develop, young children move from an over-
attribution of negligence to a more proper utilization of negligence information (notice that the
developmental trajectory for intentions follows the opposite direction: from an underutilization
towards a more proper utilization). Nobes and colleagues (2009) suggest that younger children’s
over-attribution of negligence might stem from their belief that all negative outcomes are
foreseeable and therefore avoidable. Accidental transgressors are blameworthy because they
should have foreseen the negative outcomes of their actions.
We hypothesize that older adults might over-attribute negligence for similar reasons: they
might also perceive negative outcomes as foreseeable. In support of this hypothesis, studies have
shown that in comparison to younger adults, both younger children and older adults are more
susceptible to hindsight bias, which refers to the tendency to see something as inevitable once it
has occurred (Bernstein, Erdfelder, Meltzoff, Peria, & Loftus, 2011). The negligence view can be
integrated with the expression account detailed above. Considering alternative ways in which the
future might have unfolded necessitates executive functioning skills. Thus, one may posit that
attributing causal responsibility based on outcomes is automatic, whereas properly integrating
intention and negligence information is cognitively taxing (Buon et al., 2013). In relation to
accidental harms, the attribution of causal responsibility to the transgressor may be the default,
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 6
whereas the proper consideration of negligence and intentionality information may require more
mental effort. Due to these default inferences, younger preschoolers and older adults may be
more condemning of accidental transgressors’ actions.
Present Study
In the present study we employed two tasks to investigate age-related differences in the
extent to which negligence information (either stated explicitly or inferred) is integrated in moral
judgment. In Task 1, participants evaluated the moral wrongness and punishability of cases of
accidental harm in which information about the agent’s negligence, or lack of it, was explicitly
stated. We predicted that younger adults would tend to condemn accidental transgressors who
acted with negligence and to exculpate those who acted without negligence. Also, we expected
that older adults’ judgments would be less affected by the explicit information about the absence
of agents’ negligence, and, because they tend to focus more on outcome information than on
mental state information, they would display a tendency to condemn also transgressors that are
described as non-negligent.
In Task 2, participants evaluated the moral wrongness and punishability of cases of
accidental harm in which no information was provided about whether the agent acted with or
without negligence. The aim of Task 2 was to investigate younger and older adults’ tendency to
attribute negligence to accidental harmdoers. We predicted that older adults, as compared to
younger adults, would show a higher tendency to spontaneously infer negligence in agents that
caused accidental harms in the absence of explicit information about negligence. The basis of our
prediction is that inferring negligence from bad outcomes is the default. Moreover, to gain a
better understanding of the role of executive functioning skills on older adults’ moral and
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 7
punishment judgments, we assessed participants’ working memory skills and predicted that they
would mediate the effect of age on moral judgment.
In both tasks, we expected to find an age group effect on both moral wrongness and
punishment judgments. However, it is noteworthy to mention that moral wrongness and
punishment judgments tap into different underlying constructs: blame and punishment,
respectively. Consistent with this distinction, empirical evidence shows that accidental harms are
judged more leniently in terms of moral wrongness than in terms of punishability (Cushman,
2008). This is presumably because moral wrongness judgments are influenced mostly by
intentions, whereas punishment judgments are influenced by both intentions and outcomes. If
this is the case, then based on our hypothesis, age group should have a bigger effect on moral
wrongness than on punishment judgments.
Methods
Participants
The sample size was determined by an a-priori power analysis using the Shiny webb app
(Anderson, Kelley, & Maxwell, 2017) for a mixed ANOVA using an uncertainty and publication
bias correction. We used the following estimates: F = 42.02 with a total sample size of 58 (based
on Margoni et al., 2018), with two levels for the between-subject factor (old, young), two levels
for the within-subject factor (with negligence, without negligence), alpha set at .05, a power of
.95, and a desired level of assurance of .95. This analysis indicated a minimum sample size of 40
participants per age group. No interim or stopping rules were applied. The study protocol for
Task 1 was pre-registered (http://aspredicted.org/blind.php?x=m3jv5e), but that of Task 2 was
not. We decided to include Task 2 later, after we had pre-registered Task 1. Its purpose was to
test whether older adults are more prone than younger adults to attribute negligence to an agent
that accidentally caused some harm.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 8
We recruited 82 participants: 41 older adults (34 female, MAge = 87;0 years, SDAge = 6;4,
age range: 75–98 years), and 41 younger adults (26 female, MAge = 24;6 years, SDAge = 4;11, age
range: 18–36 years). The older participants were recruited through local nursing homes, while
the younger participants through flyers posted at the campus of the University of Trento. The
research protocol of the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Trento
("The moral judgment in old age", protocol number 2017-015).
Materials and Procedure
Task 1 – Attending to negligence. We constructed four scenarios (by adapting the four
harm scenarios used in Margoni et al., 2018; see Supplementary Materials for the complete
battery). Each scenario had two experimental versions and two control versions. The two
experimental versions involved harmful consequences brought about by actions that were
motivated by neutral intentions. In one version the agent acted without due care (negligence
version; e.g., Chloe sold a sick dog which was infected with rabies because she did not check the
dog carefully), whereas in the other the agent acted with due care (no-negligence version; e.g.,
Chloe sold a sick dog which was infected with rabies, as a careful assessment of the dog made
her believe that the dog was healthy). The two control versions were all-neutral or all-bad cases.
The all-neutral cases involved an action motivated by a neutral intention that resulted in a neutral
outcome (e.g., Chloe intended to sell a healthy dog and did so, as the dog was healthy), whereas
the all-bad case involved an action motivated by a bad intention that resulted in a bad outcome
(e.g., Chloe intended to sell a sick dog which was infected with rabies, and purposely did so).
Each participant judged a different version of each of the four scenarios. Across participants, we
rotated the version selection following a Latin square design.
Following each scenario, participants were asked two questions:
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 9
Moral wrongness question: “How morally wrong was [the agent’s] action?”;
Punishment question: “How much do you think that [the agent] should be punished?”.
For each question, participants were asked to respond on an 11-point scale, ranging from
0 to 10 (0 = Not at all, 5 = Somewhat, 10 = Very much). The order of the test questions (moral
wrongness question first vs. punishment question first) was counterbalanced across participants.
Task 2 – Inferring negligence. Task 2 was not pre-registered as we decided to include it
after we had pre-registered Task 1. Its aim was twofold: (1) to replicate the main effect of
Margoni et al. (2018) which showed that older adults, compared to younger adults, are more
prone to morally condemn the agents of accidental harms, and (2) to examine whether this
tendency is in part due to the fact that older adults are more prone to attribute negligence to
agents that brought about accidental harms. A difference between Task 1 and Task 2 is that
whereas in the accidental harm scenarios of Task 1 explicit information about negligence was
provided, in the scenarios of Task 2 such information was always omitted. In relation to Task 1,
Task 2 served the complementary purpose of investigating age-related differences in
spontaneous inferences about negligence.
We selected the accidental harm versions of the four harm scenarios used in Margoni et al.
(2018). These stories do not specify information about negligence. Following the story, which was
presented immediately after the last story of Task 1, participants were asked three questions:
Moral wrongness question: “How morally wrong was [the agent’s] action?”;
Punishment question: “How much do you think that [the agent] should be punished?”;
Negligence attribution question: “To what extent do you think that [the agent] could be
accused of negligence, that is, that [she/he] was aware of the possible risks and acted without
the necessary caution?”.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 10
For each question, participants were asked to respond on an 11-point scale, ranging from
0 to 10 (0 = Not at all, 5 = Somewhat, 10 = Very much). Finally, participants were instructed
“Now, we ask you to briefly explain why according to you the action of [the agent] is not at all,
somewhat, or very wrong and why you think that it is not at all, somewhat, or very punishable.”
We assigned value 1 if the participant mentioned negligence in his or her response, and 0 if the
participant did not mention negligence. Each participant was presented with just one of the four
stories (from the scenario that the participant read in Task 1 in the all-neutral version), which
were counterbalanced across the age groups. The order of the three questions following the story
(moral wrongness, punishment and negligence questions) was counterbalanced across
participants.
Working memory skills. Following the moral judgment tasks, participants were asked to
complete a listening span test (Pazzaglia, Palladino, & De Beni, 2000), which is the Italian
version of the Reading Span Test (Daneman & Carpener, 1980). This test measures individual
differences in listening comprehension, which may reflect differences in working memory skills.
Participants were asked to say whether some sentences are true or false, directly after the
experimenter finished the sentence. After an increasing number of sentences (it may be two,
three, four, five or six), participants were asked to recall the last word of each sentence. The
experimenter took note of the number of correct words recalled by each participant.
Results
Preliminary Analyses
Screening for dementia. The Mini-Mental Status Examination was employed as a
screening tool for dementia (Folstein, Folstein, & McHugh, 1975). None of the older participants
had severe impairment/dementia (scores between 0 and 9), moderate impairment (10-16) or mild
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 11
impairment (17-19). Twelve participants had scores that revealed a suspected impairment (20-
24), while the rest had no impairment (24-30).
Age, education, and gender differences. There was a significant difference between the
age groups in terms of gender composition, 2 (1, N = 82) = 3.98, p = .046, φ = .22. There was
also a significant difference between the age groups in terms of years of education, t(66.94) =
11.55, p < .001, d = 2.55. On average, older participants indicated fewer years of school
education (M = 7.44 years, CI [6.41, 8.47]) than younger participants (M = 14.39 years, CI
[13.75, 15.03]). To examine whether gender and education influence moral wrongness judgment,
we conducted two linear regression analyses, one for each age group. We found that gender
(younger participants: β = –.17, t(39) = –1.07, p = .292; older participants: β = –.14, t(39) = –
0.86, p = .397) and education (younger participants: β = .05, t(39) = 0.34, p = .739; older
participants: β = –.22, t(39) = –1.36, p = .181) did not significantly predict moral wrongness
judgment in either age group. Next, to examine whether gender and education influence
punishment judgment, we conducted two linear regression analyses, one for each age group. We
found that gender (younger participants: β = –.08, t(39) = –0.52, p = .608; older participants: β =
–.08, t(38) = –0.50, p = .621) and education (younger participants: β = .29, t(39) = 1.86, p = .071;
older participants: β = –.09, t(38) = –0.56, p = .577) did not significantly predict punishment
judgment in either age group. Thus, we omitted gender and education from subsequent analyses.
Order of question effects. Preliminary analyses revealed that presentation order did not
interact with neither age group or negligence level, Fs < 1.25, ps > .25. In light of this finding,
and in order to simplify the analyses, we collapsed the data over presentation order.
Task 1
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 12
We first report the results for moral wrongness judgments and punishment judgments
separately. However, we also report a joint analysis to detect whether: (a) accidental harms are
judged more leniently in terms of moral wrongness than in terms of punishability and (b)
whether the age group difference is higher for moral wrongness judgments. Note that we
preregistered only the main analyses, that is those concerning the experimental items (accidental
harm scenarios with or without negligence) for which we expected an age difference. However,
our aim from the very beginning was also to test for age differences with the control scenarios
for which we expected no age differences.
Moral wrongness judgment. We first focused on the two accidental harm scenarios. We
predicted that older participants, unlike younger participants, would condemn both negligent and
non-negligent transgressors. The main results from Task 1 are illustrated in Figure 1. We
submitted the moral wrongness judgments to a 2 (Age group: old vs. young) × 2 (Negligence
level: present vs. absent) mixed-factor ANOVA, with repeated measures on negligence level.
The analysis revealed a significant main effect of negligence level, F(1, 80) = 16.72, p < .001,
p2 = .17, f = 0.46. Accidental harms that resulted from negligence were judged as more morally
wrong (M = 5.88, 95% CI [5.02, 6.74]) than accidental harms that did not result from negligence
(M = 3.96, CI [3.17, 4.76]). Critically, this effect was qualified by an Age group × Negligence
level interaction, F(1, 80) = 4.45, p = .038,
p2 = .05, f = 0.24. Pairwise tests, adjusted for
multiple comparisons, showed that older participants were less influenced by negligence level
(MPresent = 7.05, CI [5.83, 8.27]; MAbsent = 6.12, CI [5.00, 7.25]), F(1, 80) = 1.96, p = .166,
p2 =
.02, f = 0.16, than younger participants (MPresent = 4.71, CI [3.49, 5.93]; MAbsent = 1.81, CI [0.68,
2.93]), F(1, 80) = 19.21, p < .001,
p2 = .19, f = 0.48. There was also a significant main effect of
age group, F(1, 80) = 23.31, p < .001,
p2 = .23, f = 0.55. Overall, older participants gave higher
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 13
moral wrongness ratings (M = 6.59, CI [5.62, 7.56]) than younger participants (M = 3.26, CI
[2.29, 4.22]).
Next, we focused on the control versions of the scenarios. We submitted the moral
wrongness judgments to a 2 (Age group: old vs. young) × 2 (Scenario: all-bad vs. all-neutral)
mixed-factor ANOVA, with repeated measures on scenario. The only significant effect was a
main effect of scenario, F(1, 80) = 580.77, p < .001,
p2 = .88, f = 2.70. Overall, the all-bad
version was judged as more morally wrong (M = 8.37, CI [7.75, 8.98]) than the all-neutral
version (M = 0.68, CI [0.34, 1.03]). These results suggest that the participants paid attention, and
help rule out alternative interpretations for the finding concerning accidental harms such as that
older adults make a different use of the rating scale (use higher ratings). The analysis revealed no
main effect of age group, F(1, 80) = 0.58, p = .449,
p2 < .01, f < 0.10, nor was there an Age
group × Scenario interaction, F(1, 80) = 0.84, p = .361,
p2 =.01, f = 0.10.
Punishment judgment. We first submitted the punishment ratings of the accidental harm
scenarios to a 2 (Age group: old vs. young) × 2 (Negligence level: present vs. absent) mixed-
factor ANOVA, with repeated measures on negligence level. The analysis revealed a significant
main effect of negligence level, F(1, 79) = 15.78, p < .001,
p2 = .17, f = 0.45, which was
qualified by a marginally significant Age group × Negligence level interaction, F(1, 79) = 3.71, p
= .058,
p2 = .05, f = 0.22. As was the case with moral wrongness judgments, pairwise
comparisons showed that older participants were less influenced by negligence level (MPresent =
7.38, CI [6.30, 8.44]; MAbsent = 6.30, CI [5.11, 7.49]), F(1, 79) = 2.07, p = .154,
p2 = .03, f =
0.16, than were younger participants (MPresent = 6.10, CI [5.04, 7.16]; MAbsent = 3.00, CI [1.83,
4.17]), F(1, 79) = 17.61, p < .001,
p2 = .18, f = 0.47. There was also a main effect of age group,
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 14
F(1, 79) = 14.48, p < .001,
p2 = .16, f = 0.44. Overall, older participants gave higher punishment
ratings (M = 6.84, CI [5.99, 7.69]) than younger participants (M = 4.55, CI [3.71, 5.39]).
Figure 1. Average moral wrongness ratings (top panel) and average punishment ratings (bottom
panel) by age group and negligence level for accidental harm scenarios (left) or scenario type for
control scenarios (right).
Next, we submitted the punishment ratings of the two control scenarios to a 2 (Age
group: old vs. young) × 2 (Scenario: all-neutral vs. all-bad) mixed-factor ANOVA, with repeated
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 15
measures on scenario. There was only a main effect of scenario, F(1, 80) = 401.65, p < .001,
p2
= .83, f = 2.20. Overall, the all-bad control scenario version received higher punishment ratings
(M = 7.93, CI [7.24, 8.62]) than the all-neutral scenario version (M = 0.76, CI [0.35, 1.16]). This
result suggests that participants were attentive. The analysis revealed no main effect of age
group, F(1, 80) = 0.25, p = .621,
p2 < .01, f = 0.05, nor was there an Age group × Scenario
interaction, F(1, 80) = 2.46, p = .121,
p2 = .03, f = 0.18.
Joint analysis of moral wrongness judgments and punishment judgments. The
purpose of this analysis was: (a) to test whether accidental harms receive more severe
punishment than moral wrongness judgments (Cushman, 2008), and (b), in relation to this,
whether the age group effect is less pronounced for punishment than for moral wrongness
judgments.
We submitted the moral wrongness and punishment judgments to a 2 (Age group: old vs.
young) × 2 (Negligence level: present vs. absent) × 2 (Judgment type: moral wrongness vs.
punishment) mixed-factor ANOVA, with repeated measures on negligence level and judgment
type. In relation to (a), we found a significant main effect of judgment type, F(1, 79) = 15.97, p <
.001,
p2 = .17, f = 0.45, such that accidental harms received more severe punishment ratings
(MPunishment = 5.69, CI [5.10, 6.29]) than moral wrongness ratings (MWrongness = 4.88, CI [4.19,
5.57]). In relation to (b), the effect of judgment type was qualified by a Age group × Judgment
type interaction, F(1, 79) = 5.48, p = .022,
p2 = .07, f = 0.26. The age group effect was
significant in both cases but less pronounced in punishment judgments (MYoung = 4.55, CI [3.71,
5.39] vs. MOld = 6.84, CI [5.99, 7.69], MDiff = 2.29), F(1, 79) = 14.48, p < .001,
p2 = .16, f =
0.42, than in moral wrongness judgments (MYoung = 3.26, CI [2.29, 4.23] vs. MOld = 6.50, CI
[5.52, 7.48], MDiff = 3.24), F(1, 79) = 21.91, p < .001,
p2 = .21, f = 0.52.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 16
The results of this analysis replicated the results from the separate analyses reported
above. There was a significant main effect of age group, F(1, 79) = 20.17, p < .001,
p2 = .20, f =
0.50, a significant main effect of negligence level, F(1, 79) = 18.38, p < .001,
p2 = .19, f = 0.48,
and, crucially, the predicted Age group × Negligence level interaction, F(1, 79) = 4.51, p = .037,
p2 = .05, f = 0.24. There was no Age group × Negligence level × Judgment type interaction, F(1,
79) = 0.01, p = .921,
p2 < .01, f < 0.10.
Correlations between age group, moral wrongness judgment, punishment judgment,
and working memory. The following analyses pertain to accidental harm scenarios. Table 1
shows zero-order correlations between age group, moral wrongness judgments for scenarios with
negligence, scenarios without negligence, and their difference (DWrongness = average wrongness
rating for scenarios with negligence minus average wrongness rating for scenarios without
negligence), punishment judgments for scenarios with negligence, scenarios without negligence,
and their difference (DPunishment), and working memory skills (we used the standardized z scores).
Age was entered as a binary variable (0 = younger participants, 1 = older participants). Age
group was negatively correlated both with DWrongness and with working memory skills, while
DWrongness was marginally correlated with working memory skills. Age group was not
significantly correlated with DPunishment, while DPunishment was positively correlated with working
memory skills.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 17
Table 1.
Correlations Between Age Group, Moral Wrongness Judgment, Punishment Judgment, and
Working Memory Skills.
Note. **p < .01, *p < .05, †p < .10.
Relationship between age group, net negligence score, and working memory. We
next assessed whether age group differences in working memory skills contribute to age group
differences in moral wrongness judgments. We used 1,000 bootstrapping resamples (Preacher &
Hayes, 2008). As our outcome variable, we used DWrongness, age group was entered as the
independent variable (0 = younger participants, 1 = older participants), and working memory
skills as the mediator.
The relationship between age group and the net negligence score was not mediated by
working memory skills. As Figure 2 illustrates, the unstandardized regression coefficient
between age group and working memory skills was significant, b = –2.33, p < .001, 95% CI [–
2.85, –1.82], however, the unstandardized regression coefficient between working memory skills
and moral wrongness judgment was not, b = –0.06, p = .881, 95% CI [–0.88, 0.76]. The partially
standardized indirect effect was β = .03, 95% [–0.60, 0.52]. The bootstrapped unstandardized
indirect effect was b = 0.14, 95% [–2.63, 2.21], thus, the indirect effect was not statistically
significant.
1
2a
2b
3
4a
4b
5
6
1. Age group
--
2. Moral wrongness judgment
(a) Accidental harm with negligence
.29**
--
(b) Accidental harm without negligence
.52**
.45**
--
3. Difference between 2a and 2b
–.23*
.50**
–.55**
--
4. Punishment judgment
(a) Accidental harm with negligence
.19†
.72**
.22*
.46**
--
(b) Accidental harm without negligence
.41**
.36**
.89**
–.51**
.20†
--
5. Difference between 4a and 4b
–.21†
.21†
–.60**
.77**
.55**
–.71**
--
6. Working memory skills
–.71**
–.34**
–.49**
.15
–.16
–.40**
.22*
--
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 18
Figure 2. Unstandardized regression coefficients and bootstrap confidence intervals for the
relationship between age group and net negligence as mediated by working memory skills.
Task 2
Moral wrongness judgment. We submitted the moral wrongness ratings to a simple
one-way ANOVA. The analysis revealed significant age group differences, F(1, 78) = 38.08, p <
.001,
2 = .33, f = 0.70. Older participants assigned higher moral wrongness ratings to the
accidental harm scenario (M = 7.28, CI [6.18, 8.37]) than did younger participants (M = 2.48, CI
[1.38, 3.57]).
Punishment judgment. An one-way ANOVA revealed significant age group
differences, F(1, 78) = 23.80, p < .001,
2 = .23, f = 0.55. Older participants assigned higher
punishment ratings (M = 7.48, CI [6.40, 8.55]) than did younger participants (M = 3.75, CI [2.68,
4.83]).
Perceived negligence judgment. An one-way ANOVA revealed significant age group
differences, Welch’s F(1, 71.75) = 37.56, p < .001,
2 = .33, f = 0.69 (we report the Welch
adjusted F-ratio because the assumption of homogeneity of variance was not met). In the absence
Age group
Working
memory
b = –1.95, 95% CI [–3.84, –0.07]
–2.33**
–0.06
Net Negligence
b = –2.09, 95% CI [–4.78, 0.61]
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 19
of negligence information, older participants rated the agent as more negligent (M = 8.18, CI
[7.18, 9.17]) than younger participants (M = 3.85, CI [2.86, 4.84]).
Joint analysis of moral wrongness judgments and punishment judgments. We
submitted the moral wrongness and punishment judgments to a 2 (Age group: old vs. young) × 2
(Judgment type: moral wrongness vs. punishment) mixed-factor ANOVA, with repeated
measures on judgment type. There was a significant main effect of age group, F(1, 78) =
32.97, p < .001,
p2 = .30, f = 0.65, such as that older participants gave harsher judgments
(MOld = 7.38, CI [6.33, 8.42]) than younger participants (MYoung = 3.11, CI [2.07, 4.16]). There
was also a significant main effect of judgment type, F(1, 78) = 12.65, p = .001,
p2 = .14, f =
0.40, such that participants gave harsher punishment ratings (MPunishment = 5.61, CI [4.85, 6.37])
than moral wrongness ratings (MWrongness = 4.88, CI [4.10, 5.65]). This main effect was qualified
by a Age group × Judgment type interaction, F(1, 78) = 6.72, p = .011,
p2 = .08, f = 0.29. The
age group effect was less pronounced for punishment judgments (MYoung = 3.75, CI [2.68,
4.83], MOld = 7.48, CI [6.40, 8.55], MDiff = 3.73) as compared to moral wrongness judgments
(MYoung= 2.48, 95% CI [1.38, 3.57], MOld = 7.28, CI [6.18, 8.37], MDiff = 4.80).
Explanation for moral wrongness and punishment judgments. We analyzed
participants’ explanations behind their moral wrongness and punishment judgments with a chi-
square test (i.e., 1 = participant mentioned negligence, 0 = participant did not mention
negligence). The interrater reliability of two raters was high, .91 (disagreement were resolved by
a brief discussion). While 78.4% of older adults indicated negligence as a reason, only 52.6% of
younger adults did so, χ2 (1, N = 75) = 5.49, p = .019, φ = 0.27.
Correlation between age group, moral wrongness judgment, punishment judgment,
perceived negligence and working memory. Table 2 shows correlations between age group,
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 20
moral wrongness judgments, punishment judgments, perceived negligence and working memory.
Age was entered as a binary variable as before. Moral wrongness judgment of the accidental
harm scenario was positively correlated with age group and perceived negligence, but negatively
correlated with working memory skills. Punishment judgment of the accidental harm scenario
was positively correlated with age group and perceived negligence, but negatively correlated
with working memory skills. Age group was negatively correlated with working memory skills
which was negatively correlated with perceived negligence.
Table 2.
Correlations Between Age Group, Moral Wrongness Judgment, Punishment Judgment,
Perceived Negligence and Working Memory Skills.
Note. **p < .01, *p < .05.
Relationship between age group, moral wrongness judgment, perceived negligence
and working memory. The analyses above are consistent with the hypothesis that older adults,
compared to younger adults, judged accidental harms more harshly, because they were more
likely to ascribe negligence to the agent. We examined this hypothesis by running a mediation
analysis where the outcome variable was moral wrongness judgment, the independent variable
was age group, and the mediators were working memory skills and perceived negligence.The
relationship between age group (0 = younger adults, 1 = older adults) and moral wrongness
judgment was mediated by perceived negligence and working memory skills. As Figure 3
1
2
3
4
5
1. Age group
--
2. Accidental harm moral wrongness
.57**
--
3. Accidental harm punishment
48**
.89**
--
4. Accidental harm perceived negligence
.57**
.83**
.81**
--
5. Working memory skills
–.71**
–.51**
–.46**
–.48**
--
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 21
illustrates, the unstandardized regression coefficient between age group and perceived
negligence was significant, b = 4.28, p < .001, 95% CI [2.86, 5.70], as was the unstandardized
regression coefficient between age group and working memory skills, b = –2.35, p < .001, 95%
CI [–2.88, –1.82]. The unstandardized regression coefficient between perceived negligence and
moral wrongness judgment was also significant, b = 0.80, p < .001, 95% CI [0.63, 0.97],
however, the unstandardized regression coefficient between working memory skills and moral
wrongness judgment was not significant, b = –0.24, p = .303, 95% CI [–0.69, 0.22]. The partially
standardized indirect effect was β = .95, 95% [0.55, 1.43]. The bootstrapped unstandardized
indirect effect was b = 3.99, 95% [2.25, 6.17], thus, the indirect effect was statistically
significant. Investigating the specific indirect effects, perceived negligence significantly
explained some of the variance of the effect of age group on moral wrongness judgment, b =
3.43, 95% CI [2.22, 5.14] (β = .82, 95% CI [0.54, 1.16]), while working memory skills did not, b
= 0.55, 95% CI [–0.70, 1.80] (β = .13, 95% CI [–0.16, 0.44]).
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 22
Figure 3. Unstandardized regression coefficients and bootstrap confidence intervals for the
association between age group and moral wrongness judgment for accidental harm scenarios as
mediated by perceived negligence and working memory skills.
Discussion
We examined whether normal aging influences people’s reliance on negligence
information in their moral wrongness and punishment judgments. In Task 1, we used accidental
harm scenarios that explicitly stated whether or not the agent acted with negligence. We found
that while younger adults condemned more severely negligent than non-negligent agents, older
participants condemned equally severely both negligent and non-negligent agents. Importantly,
we found no age-related differences in control scenarios in which both intentions and outcomes
were either neutral or bad. In Task 2, we used an accidental harm scenario that omitted
negligence information. We found that older adults condemned the accidental trangressors more
than did younger adults, and were more likely to attribute negligence to the actions. Further
analyses showed that perceived negligence, but not working memory skills, mediated the
relationship between age group and moral wrongness judgment.
The present results on age-related differences in the use of negligence information in
moral judgment help explain recent findings suggesting the occurrence of an intent-to-outcome
developmental shift later in life (Margoni et al., 2018; Moran et al., 2012). Taken together with
previous findings, the results suggest that older adults rely more on outcomes than on intentions
in their moral evaluations, and are more likely to attribute negligence to accidental transgressors.
The older adults’ greater tendency to spontaneously attribute negligence to accidental
transgressors found in Task 2 may have played a role in their increased condemnation of
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 23
accidental trangressors in Task 1. That is, it could be that in Task 1 older adults did not rely on
the explicit information about the absence of agents’ negligence and may have instead relied on
their own attribution of negligence to accidental transgressors (for similar findings with younger
preschoolers, see Nobes et al., 2009). In line with an account that places emphasis on inhibitory
capacities, older adults may have been more prone to condemn accidental harms also because
they were incapable of inhibiting their own inferences about negligence. The current findings
highlight the role of negligence in the processing of moral scenarios: It is not simply that older
adults selectively focus on negative outcomes; critically, they also assume that the agents behind
these outcomes are negligent.
Moreover, we reported that differences between younger and older adults in judging
accidental harms by relying on outcomes independently on how the agent was described by the
experimenter (negligent or non-negligent) were more pronounced for moral wrongness
judgments than for punishment judgment. This result provides some support for the claim that
punishment judgments are more outcome-based than moral wrongness judgments (Cushman,
2008). As younger adults would by default consider to some extent outcomes when judging the
punishability of an accidental harmdoer, age-related differences in relying on outcomes
information may be reduced.
In the child development literature, recent attempts to account for the outcome-to-intent
shift emphasized the role of ancillary changes occurring outside the moral domain such as in
executive functioning and general cognitive abilities (Margoni & Surian, 2016), and in the
child’s tendency to attribute negligence to accidental harmdoers (Nobes et al., 2017). In our
study we predicted age-related differences between younger and older adults, as we noticed that
the general cognitive abilities and executive function components that are implied in processing
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 24
morally-relevant information (e.g., inhibitory control, working memory), and that need to be
fully developed before a child can show intent-based judgments, are also the ones that decline in
old age.
However, in the current study we did not find the predicted relationship between age
group, working memory, and moral judgment—the effect of age group on moral judgment was
not associated with working memory skills. As a tentative account of this null result, we may
note that while working memory performance declines in old age (Hultsch, Hertzog, Small,
McDonald-Miszczak, & Dixon, 1992; Park et al., 2002; Salthouse & Meinz, 1995), individual
differences in this component of executive function may not be helpful in explaining age-related
differences in moral judgment. It is possible that when working memory skills decline beyond a
certain threshold level, old people start to heavily rely on their past experience: Older
participants, to compensate for their executive functioning decline, but irrespective of the precise
level of decline, may have attributed negligence to the agents because in real-life people who
cause harm are often negligent. Future studies can investigate this and the role of executive
functioning skills in age-related differences by measuring additional components of executive
function such as inhibitory control and set shifting. Another possibility that could be investigated
in future studies is that the threshold for attributing negligence lowers with aging, independently
of the decline in the executive functioning. Again, employing different measures of executive
function would be useful in determining whether an effect in negligence attribution remains
significant even after controlling for executive variables.
A further limitation of this study concerns its within-subject design. In particular, one
may notice that each participant completed both Task 1 and Task 2, and Task 2 always followed
Task 1. It is then possible that having an explicit reference to negligence in Task 1 influenced the
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 25
judgment of negligence in Task 2. This can be true and needs to be assessed in future studies.
Nevertheless, the main focus of the current study was on age-related differences in the tendency
to rely on explicit information about agents’ negligence and these were clearly found in the
responses given to Task 1.
Another factor that may have exerted an influence on participants’ ratings of moral
wrongness may be the question wording: We asked participants to judge the wrongness of the
action rather than how wrong (bad) was the character who performed the action. However,
Nobes et al. (2016) found that adults’ judgments of actions are more outcome-based than
judgments of characters. Future studies may thus examine whether asking about characters rather
than actions would help older adults to generate intent-based moral judgments, and thus reduce
the age effect reported in the present study.
A final limitation concerns the study cross-sectional design. It can be suggested that the
age-related differences we found may reflect a cohort effect. For example, it may be argued that
older adults belong to a generation that, compared to the one of younger adults, gave less
exculpatory value to the absence of negligence, perhaps due to a stricter education that set higher
standards of carefulness. Future longitudinal studies could help decide whether the age-related
differences in the tendency to rely on negligence information and, more in general, the intent-to-
outcome shift, reflect a developmental or a cohort effect.
In conclusion, the present findings show that attributions of negligence play a crucial role
in explaining age-related differences in moral judgment. Specifically, older adults were more
prone to infer negligence from negative outcomes (Task 2), and this higher proneness can
explain why older adults also condemned agents who were explicitly described as non-negligent
(Task 1); it could be that older adults based their moral evaluations on their own inference that
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 26
the agents were negligent. This, in turn, can reflect a difficulty in suppressing assumptions of
negligence or higher standards of carefulness. Moreover, it remains an open question whether (a)
it is the focus on outcomes that prompts older adults to attribute negligence and subsequently
condemn the accidental harmdoer; or (b) the higher tendency to attribute negligence can explain
the intent-to-outcome shift. Regardless of the mechanism driving these age-related differences
(deterioration in executive functions, higher reliance on experience), the present results point out
the need to adopt a life-span view in studying moral development and to systematically
investigate the often neglected developmental changes occurring in old age.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 27
Acknowledgements
We thank XXX for helpful discussion and the students (Fiorenza Zancanaro and Simona
Sardella) who helped collecting the data.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 28
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NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 34
Supplementary Material – Complete battery of scenarios
(The questionnaires were presented in Italian. Below we provide English translations of the
instructions and scenarios.)
Instructions
Dear participant,
We thank you for your time. The purpose of the present study is to understand how people
evaluate moral cases. The more general aim is to understand the psychological mechanisms that
underlie human thinking. Below, we will ask you to read some instructions and then to read a
number of scenarios and answer to the associated questions. The questionnaire will take
approximately fifteen minutes to complete. If, after reading the instructions, you have doubts as
to what you are supposed to do, please do not hesitate to ask for additional information.
Please read carefully the following instructions:
Your participation is on a voluntary basis and all the information we collect will be treated
confidentially. You are free to interrupt the task at any time and for any reason. If you choose to
participate, we ask you to read the stories and questions carefully, otherwise the data may not be
reliable for the purposes of our research. In addition, we ask you to read the stories in the order
in which they are presented, and answer to the questions in the order in which they appear. After
reading a story carefully and answering to its related questions, please turn the page and continue
with the next story. Please proceed in this way. Please provide your answer to a particular
question next to it, by choosing a value between 0 and 10.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 35
Task 1
First harm scenario – spinach
All-bad case (bad-intention/bad-outcome): Simon is grocery shopping for his grandmother who
adores spinach. Recently there had been bacterial contamination of bagged spinach. At the
market, Simon sees some bagged spinach on sale.
He thinks that bagged spinach may still be contaminated because of an incident just that day in
his town.
Bagged spinach has been restocked at many markets, but some inspections aren’t thorough and
contaminated batches are missed. Simon buys his grandmother the spinach, and she cooks it,
ending up in the hospital, violently ill.
All-neutral case (neutral-intention/neutral-outcome): Simon is grocery shopping for his
grandmother who adores spinach. Recently there had been bacterial contamination of bagged
spinach. At the market, Simon sees some bagged spinach on sale.
He thinks that bagged spinach is perfectly safe now because someone told him so.
It is safe to eat bagged spinach because it is no longer contaminated, in fact bagged spinach has
been restocked at many markets. Simon buys his grandmother the spinach, and she cooks it. The
meal is healthy and delicious.
Negligence accidental case (neutral-intention/negligence/bad-outcome): Simon is grocery
shopping for his grandmother who adores spinach. Recently there had been bacterial
contamination of bagged spinach. At the market, Simon sees some bagged spinach on sale.
He thinks that bagged spinach is perfectly safe now. Even though he came across the news of the
contamination, he did not actively seek information about whether inspections on batches have
been conducted.
Some inspections, indeed, were not thorough and contaminated batches are missed. Simon,
without checking for it, buys his grandmother the spinach. She cooks it, ending up in the
hospital, violently ill.
No-negligence accidental case (neutral-intention/no-negligence/bad-outcome): Simon is grocery
shopping for his grandmother who adores spinach. Recently there had been bacterial
contamination of bagged spinach. At the market, Simon sees some bagged spinach on sale.
He thinks that bagged spinach is perfectly safe now. Indeed, before going to the market, he
checked on the newspaper whether all the contaminated batches have been withdrawn from the
market.
However, some inspections were not thorough and contaminated batches are missed. Simon,
thinking that it is not dangerous, buys his grandmother the spinach. She cooks it, ending up in the
hospital, violently ill.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 36
Second harm scenario – the dog
All-bad case (bad-intention/bad-outcome): Chloe works at the pound. Several new dogs have
just come in. A lady comes in, interested in taking one dog home with her.
Chloe doesn’t see the dogs, but her colleagues inform her that the new dogs all failed the health
inspection and are infected with rabies.
The dogs are sick with rabies and will make their owners sick too by biting them. Chloe gives
the lady one of the new dogs. It is infected with rabies and bites the lady on the very first day.
All-neutral case (neutral-intention/neutral-outcome): Chloe works at the pound. Several new
dogs have just come in. A lady comes in, interested in taking one dog home with her.
Chloe doesn’t see the dogs, but her colleagues inform her that the new dogs have been through a
health inspection and will make good pets.
The dogs are healthy and active. Chloe gives the lady one of the new dogs. It is health, and the
lady bonds immediately with it.
Negligence accidental case (neutral-intention/negligence/bad-outcome): Chloe works at the
pound. Several new dogs have just come in. A lady comes in, interested in taking one dog home
with her.
Chloe doesn’t see the dogs, and because she is late for the birthday party of her son, she did not
talk with her colleagues: She took for granted that the new dogs have been through a health
inspection and will make good pets.
However, contrarily to what Chloe thinks, the dogs are sick with rabies and will make their
owners sick too by biting them. Chloe gives the lady one of the new dogs. The dog is infected
with rabies and bites the lady on the very first day.
No-negligence accidental case (neutral-intention/no-negligence/bad-outcome): Chloe works at
the pound. Several new dogs have just come in. A lady comes in, interested in taking one dog
home with her.
Chloe does see the dogs, and her colleagues reassure her that the new dogs have been through a
health inspection and will make good pets.
However, contrarily to what Chloe thinks, the dogs are sick with rabies and will make their
owners sick too by biting them. Chloe gives the lady one of the new dogs. The dog is infected
with rabies and bites the lady on the very first day.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 37
Third harm scenario – the zoo
All-bad case (bad-intention/bad-outcome): Robert is at the zoo with his nephew. They are
watching the dolphin show when the nephew complains that his stomach hurts.
Robert thinks that his nephew’s stomach hurts because of a major surgical operation he had
several weeks ago; Robert thinks that he needs medical attention immediately.
The nephew is really sick. After the recent operation, stomach pain could indicate really serious
complications. Robert takes him to see the monkeys although he thinks that his nephew is really
sick. His nephew starts feeling worse and soon blacks out because of severe internal bleeding.
All-neutral case (neutral-intention/neutral-outcome): Robert is at the zoo with his nephew. They
are watching the dolphin show when the nephew complains that his stomach hurts.
Robert thinks that his nephew’s stomach hurts because he ate too much cotton candy and fried
dough that afternoon, and he doesn’t know that the nephew has recently undergone a major
surgical operation; Robert thinks his nephew just needs to walk it off.
The nephew is really fine. His stomach sometimes hurts when he eats too much, but he usually
feels better after an hour or so. Robert takes him to see the monkeys. His nephew starts feeling
better, and they see nearly all the zoo exhibits.
Negligence accidental case (neutral-intention/negligence/bad-outcome): Robert is at the zoo
with his nephew. They are watching the dolphin show when the nephew complains that his
stomach hurts.
Robert thinks that his nephew’s stomach hurts because he ate too much cotton candy and fried
dough that afternoon, and he doesn’t know that the nephew has recently undergone a major
surgical operation. The uncle does not care much about his nephew, and, after the first nephew’s
manifestations of pain, he does not call the parents to make sure the child does not suffer from
any medical condition. Robert thinks his nephew just needs to walk it off.
However, the nephew is really sick. After the recent operation, stomach pain could indicate
really serious complications. Robert takes him to see the monkeys. His nephew starts feeling
worse and soon blacks out because of severe internal bleeding.
No-negligence accidental case (neutral-intention/no-negligence/bad-outcome): Robert is at the
zoo with his nephew. They are watching the dolphin show when the nephew complains that his
stomach hurts.
Robert thinks that his nephew’s stomach hurts because he ate too much cotton candy and fried
dough that afternoon, and he doesn’t know that the nephew has recently undergone a major
surgical operation. The uncle asks often about him to his parents, but the parents did not tell the
uncle about the medical operation. Robert thinks his nephew just needs to walk it off.
However, the nephew is really sick. After the recent operation, stomach pain could indicate
really serious complications. Robert, who did not know about the operation, takes the nephew to
see the monkeys. The nephew starts feeling worse and soon blacks out because of severe internal
bleeding.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 38
Fourth harm scenario – jellyfish
All-bad case (bad-intention/bad-outcome): Joanna and one of her acquaintances are on a boat in
a part of the sea with lots of jellyfish. Joanna’s acquaintance asks her if she can go for a swim.
Since Joanna read that the local jellyfish are poisonous, she thinks it is not safe to swim in the
sea.
It is not safe to swim in the sea because the jellyfish sting and their stings are poisonous. Joanna
tells her acquaintance to go for a swim. Her acquaintance does, gets stung by jellyfish and goes
into shock.
All-neutral case (neutral-intention/neutral-outcome): Joanna and one of her acquaintances are on
a boat in a part of the sea with lots of jellyfish. Joanna’s acquaintance asks her if she can go for a
swim.
Since Joanna read that the local jellyfish are harmless, she thinks it is safe to swim in the sea.
It is perfectly safe to swim in the sea because the jellyfish don’t sting and are harmless. Joanna
tells her acquaintance to go for a swim. Her acquaintance does and enjoys the swim.
Negligence accidental case (neutral-intention/negligence/bad-outcome): Joanna and one of her
acquaintances are on a boat in a part of the sea with lots of jellyfish. Joanna’s acquaintance asks
her if she can go for a swim.
Joanna thinks it is safe to swim in the sea, but she did not verify with anybody her belief. Before
leaving with the boat, notwithstanding she was in charge of organizing the trip, she did not
collect information about the sea conditions.
Contrarily to what Joanna thinks, it is not safe to swim in the sea because the jellyfish sting and
their stings are poisonous. Joanna, answering without due care and without being informed, tells
her acquaintance to go for a swim. Her acquaintance does, gets stung by jellyfish and goes into
shock.
No-negligence accidental case (neutral-intention/no-negligence/bad-outcome): Joanna and one
of her acquaintances are on a boat in a part of the sea with lots of jellyfish. Joanna’s
acquaintance asks her if she can go for a swim.
Joanna organized the trip with due care and read on an important newspaper that the local
jellyfish are harmless. Therefore, she thinks it is safe to swim in the sea.
However, contrarily to what Joanna thinks, it is not safe to swim in the sea because the jellyfish
sting and their stings are poisonous. Joanna tells her acquaintance to go for a swim since she
thinks it is safe. Her acquaintance does, gets stung by jellyfish and goes into shock.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 39
Task 2
First accidental harm case – spinach
Neutral-intention/bad-outcome: Simon is grocery shopping for his grandmother who adores
spinach. Recently there had been bacterial contamination of bagged spinach. At the market,
Simon sees some bagged spinach on sale.
He thinks that bagged spinach is perfectly safe now because someone told him so.
Bagged spinach has been restocked at many markets, but some inspections aren’t thorough and
contaminated batches are missed. Simon, thinking that it is not dangerous, buys his grandmother
the spinach, and she cooks it, ending up in the hospital, violently ill.
Second accidental harm case – the dog
Neutral-intention/bad-outcome: Chloe works at the pound. Several new dogs have just come in.
A lady comes in, interested in taking one dog home with her.
Chloe doesn’t see the dogs, but her colleagues inform her that the new dogs have been through a
health inspection and will make good pets.
However, contrarily to what Chloe thinks, the dogs are sick with rabies and will make their
owners sick too by biting them. Chloe gives the lady one of the new dogs thinking that the dog is
healthy. It is infected with rabies and bites the lady on the very first day.
Third accidental harm case – the zoo
Neutral-intention/bad-outcome: Robert is at the zoo with his nephew. They are watching the
dolphin show when the nephew complains that his stomach hurts.
Robert thinks that his nephew’s stomach hurts because he ate too much cotton candy and fried
dough that afternoon, and he doesn’t know that the nephew has recently undergone a major
surgical operation; Robert thinks his nephew just needs to walk it off.
However, the nephew is really sick. After the recent operation, stomach pain could indicate
really serious complications. Robert takes him to see the monkeys because he doesn’t know
about the operation. His nephew starts feeling worse and soon blacks out because of severe
internal bleeding.
Fourth accidental harm case – jellyfish
Neutral-intention/bad-outcome: Joanna and one of her acquaintances are on a boat in a part of
the sea with lots of jellyfish. Joanna’s acquaintance asks her if she can go for a swim.
Since Joanna read that the local jellyfish are harmless, she thinks it is safe to swim in the sea.
However, contrarily to what Joanna thinks, it is not safe to swim in the sea because the jellyfish
sting and their stings are poisonous. Joanna tells her acquaintance to go for a swim since she
thinks it is safe. Her acquaintance does, gets stung by jellyfish and goes into shock.
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 40
Supplementary Material – Additional analyses
The effect of question order on participants’ punishment judgments (Task 1)
Previous studies have shown that asking children and adults to judge an action (e.g.,
‘selling a sick dog’) leads to outcome-based judgments, whereas asking participants to judge the
character of an agent (e.g., Was the agent good or bad?) leads to intention-based judgments (see
Nobes et al., 2016). Therefore, the wording of the moral wrongness question which we used in
the current study might have led participants to focus more on the agent’s action than on the
agent’s character, and this, in turn, may have prompted participants to judge based on outcome
information. However, this issue does not apply to the wording of the punishment question,
which was agent-focused. Furthermore, the presentation order of the questions may have
impacted judgments due to carry-over effects. Specifically, having the punishment judgment first
may lead participants to focus on the moral character of the person when responding to the
subsequent moral wrongness question, while having the moral wrongness judgment first may
prompt participants to focus on the action when responding to the punishment question. To
examine this latter possibility, we reanalysed the punishment data testing for order effects.
We submitted the punishment judgments to a 2 (Age group: old vs. young) × 2
(Negligence level: present vs. absent) × 2 (Order of test question: wrongness judgments first vs.
punishment judgments first) mixed-factor ANOVA, with repeated measures on negligence level
(see Figure S1). The analysis revealed a significant main effect of negligence level, F(1, 77) =
15.76, p < .001,
p2 = .17, f = 0.46. Accidental harms that resulted from negligence received
higher punishment ratings (M = 6.74, 95% CI [5.98, 7.50]) than accidental harms that did not
result from negligence (M = 4.63, CI [3.79, 5.47]). Critically, this effect was qualified by a
marginally significant Age group × Negligence level interaction, F(1, 77) = 3.81, p = .055,
p2 =
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 41
.05, f = 0.23. Pairwise comparisons showed that older participants were less influenced by
negligence level (MPresent = 7.38, CI [6.30, 8.45]; MAbsent = 6.30, CI [5.11, 7.49]), F(1, 77) = 2.03,
p = .158,
p2 = .03, f = 0.16, than younger participants (MPresent = 6.11, CI [5.04, 7.18]; MAbsent =
2.96, CI [1.78, 4.14]), F(1, 77) = 17.62, p < .001,
p2 = .19, f = 0.48. Furthermore, there was a
significant main effect of age group, F(1, 77) = 14.68, p < .001,
p2 = .16, f = 0.44. Overall, older
participants gave higher punishment ratings (M = 6.84, CI [5.99, 7.69]) than younger participants
(M = 4.53, CI [3.69, 5.38]).
Figure S1. Average punishment judgments by age group condition (old vs. young), negligence
level (present vs. absent) and order of judgments presentation (punishment ratings first vs.
second). Error bars indicate standard errors of the mean.
Returning to the tests of interest, there was no significant main effect of order, F(1, 77) =
1.80, p = .184,
p2 = .02, f = 0.14. Importantly, there was no significant Age group × Order
interaction, F(1, 77) = 0.90, p = .346,
p2 = .01, f = 0.10, no significant Order × Negligence level
NEGLIGENCE AND MORAL JUDGMENT 42
interaction, F(1, 77) < 0.30, p = .586,
p2 < .01, f < 0.10, and no Age group × Order × Negligence
level interaction, F(1, 77) = 0.10, p = .756,
p2 < .01, f < 0.10.
The effect of question order on participants’ punishment judgments (Task 2)
We submitted the punishment judgments to a 2 (Age group: old vs. young) × 3 (Order of
test question: moral wrongness/punishment/negligence [1] vs. punishment/negligence/moral
wrongness [2] vs. negligence/moral wrongness/punishment [3]) ANOVA. The analysis revealed
a significant main effect of age group, F(1, 74) = 27.22, p < .001,
p2 = .27, f = 0.61, and a
significant main effect of order, F(2, 74) = 3.89, p = .025,
p2 = .10, f = 0.32. There was a
marginally significant Age group × Order, F(2, 74) = 2.53, p = .087,
p2 = .06, f = 0.25. Pairwise
comparisons showed that the effect of age group was only significant for the orders of test
question presentation 2 and 3 (Fs > 10.70, ps < .003). Again, this effect was driven by older
participant’s judgments. In the group of older participants, there was a significant difference
between order 1 (MOrder1 = 5.21, CI [3.49, 6.94]) and order 2 (MOrder2 = 7.77, CI [5.98, 9.56]), as
well as between order 1 and order 3 (MOrder3 = 9.62, CI [7.83, 11.40]). No other comparisons
were statistically significant.
