Abstract：
Previous research shows that both adults and children by 5 or 6 years of age appreciate socially mindful actions where one leaves a choice for others. However, less is known as to whether children consider motivations in their evaluations of socially (un)mindful actions. Here we investigated whether children and adults can spontaneously evaluate socially (un)mindful behaviors depending on contextual cues, specifically whether the actions happen in public or in private. We also investigated how children evaluate these actions when provided with explicit information on motivations. We presented 99 children (aged 6-11 years) and 99 adults in China with two characters performing the same socially mindful or unmindful behaviors. One character acted publicly, whereas the other acted privately. Participants were asked to compare the two characters first spontaneously and then again after explicit information on the characters\' motivations was provided. We found that whereas adults spontaneously favor private socially mindful acts, children favor public socially mindful acts. Only after motivations were provided did children favor private socially mindful acts like adults. In addition, we found asymmetry in that motivation seems to matter more in evaluations of socially mindful actions than in evaluations of socially unmindful ones. These findings are the first to reveal children\'s consideration of motivations in their evaluations of socially mindful behaviors.
摘要：
先前的研究表明，成人和5或6岁的儿童都喜欢社交意识行为，即一个人可以选择他人。然而,关于儿童在对社会(非)正念行为的评估中是否考虑动机的问题，人们知之甚少。在这里，我们调查了儿童和成人是否可以根据上下文线索自发地评估社交（非）正念行为，特别是这些行为是在公共场合还是在私下发生。我们还调查了当提供明确的动机信息时，儿童如何评估这些行为。我们在中国展示了99名儿童（6-11岁）和99名成年人，其中两个角色表现出相同的社交意识或无意识行为。一个角色公开表演，而另一个人私下行事。要求参与者首先自发地比较两个角色，然后在提供有关角色动机的明确信息后再次比较。我们发现，尽管成年人自发地喜欢私人的社交意识行为，孩子们喜欢公众的社会意识行为。只有在提供了动机之后，孩子们才喜欢像成年人一样的私人社交意识行为。此外,我们发现不对称，因为动机似乎在对社会有意识行为的评估中比对社会无意识行为的评估更重要。这些发现首次揭示了儿童在评估社会意识行为时对动机的考虑。
