The Effect of Moral and Statistical Norm Violations in Children's Counterfactual Reasoning

Counterfactual reasoning involves thinking about how reality could have been different. Adults show remarkable consistency in the counterfactual possibilities they imagine. For example, they tend to imagine counterfactuals that undo immoral actions. However, it remains unclear whether this link between morality and the counterfactual imagination is an inherent cognitive feature, present from early childhood. To elucidate this relation, we tested 191 4- to-11-year-olds across two studies. In Study 1, children heard stories in which a moral norm-violating and a moral norm-conforming character together bring about a negative outcome. When asked what could have happened differently, children changed the moral norm-violating part of reality over other parts with increasing age. In Study 2, we examined whether this effect is unique to moral norm violations or extends to statistical norm violations. Children began mutating moral norm violations earlier than statistical norm violations, suggesting morality influences counterfactual thinking earlier than statistical norms.