The Tree of Knowledge: Children's Knowledge and their Perceived Morality

People keep certain information from children. For example, adults censor objectionable media from children and support belief in Santa Claus, a fictional entity. One possible reason for these behaviors is that people perceive that children who are more knowledgeable are less innocent and pure, and therefore less moral. Two studies in this thesis tested whether increased knowledge held by a hypothetical child was negatively linked to perceptions of that child's moral behavior and whether perceived innocence would mediate this relationship. However, results found that increased knowledge was positively, not negatively, associated with perceived moral behavior and that perceived agency mediated this relationship. Results suggest that all knowledge is not negatively linked to perceptions of morality and that only certain types of knowledge have this effect.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Anderson, Rajen Alexander

• Children

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/39290

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/39290