How children selectively trust moral testimony in helpful and harmful situations

In the process of moral development, children need to learn more moral judgments through indirect learning, which is faster than direct learning. This requires them to be able to decide whose moral judgment to trust based on informants’ intentions of moral behaviour. However, the valence of moral behaviour may influence children’s use of moral agents’ intentions. We explored 4- to 6-year-old children’s selective trust of moral judgments in both helpful and harmful situations. The results showed that in harmful situations, younger children made more trust decisions based on the consequences, but there was no significant difference in the selective trust of children of different ages in the helpful situations. Overall, as they grow older, young children gradually develop from outcome-based selective trust to intention-based selective trust. However, children develop the ability to make decisions based on intention earlier in helpful situations than in harmful situations.