Children Prioritize Humans Over Animals Less Than Adults Do
作者研究了儿童和成年人在道德困境中如何权衡人类与动物的生命价值。他们向5-9岁儿童和成年人呈现道德困境，要求他们在不同数量的人类与狗或猪之间选择拯救谁。结果发现，儿童比成年人更不倾向于优先考虑人类。儿童经常选择拯救多只狗而非一个人，许多人将狗的生命看得与人类生命同等重要。虽然他们对猪的价值评价较低，但多数儿童仍选择拯救10只猪而非一个人。相反，几乎所有成年人都选择拯救一个人，即使面对100只狗或猪。作者认为，人类在道德上远重要于动物的普遍观点在发育后期才出现，可能是社会习得的。
= 622), 5- to 9-year-old children and adults were presented with moral dilemmas pitting varying numbers of humans against varying numbers of either dogs or pigs and were asked who should be saved. In both studies, children had a weaker tendency than adults to prioritize humans over animals. They often chose to save multiple dogs over one human, and many valued the life of a dog as much as the life of a human. Although they valued pigs less, the majority still prioritized 10 pigs over one human. By contrast, almost all adults chose to save one human over even 100 dogs or pigs. Our findings suggest that the common view that humans are far more morally important than animals appears late in development and is likely socially acquired.