Attentional Control Moderates the Relation between Sympathy and Ethical Guilt

Abstract

In response to ethical transgressions, some children respond with ethical guilt (e.g., remorse), while others do not. The affective and cognitive precursors of ethical guilt have been widely studied on their own, however, few studies have looked at the interaction of affective (e.g., sympathy) and cognitive (e.g., attention) precursors on ethical guilt. This study examined the effects of children’s sympathy, attentional control, and their interaction on 4 and 6-year-old children’s ethical guilt. A sample of 118 children (50% girls, 4-year-olds: M_age = 4.58, SD = .24, n = 57; 6-year-old: M_age = 6.52, SD = .33, n = 61) completed an attentional control task and provided self-reports of dispositional sympathy and ethical guilt in response to hypothetical ethical violations. Sympathy and attentional control were not directly associated with ethical guilt. Attentional control, however, moderated the relation between sympathy and ethical guilt, such that sympathy was more strongly related to ethical guilt at increasing levels of attentional control. This interaction did not differ between 4- and 6-year-olds or boys and girls. These findings illustrate an interaction between emotion and cognitive processes and suggest that promoting children’s ethical development may require a focus on both attentional control and sympathy.

Keywords:

• attentional control
• ethical guilt
• morality
• sympathy
• transgressions

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. We would like to thank all the children and caregivers who participated in this study, and the research assistants who helped with data collection.

Data availability statement

Data have not been shared for privacy and ethical reasons, namely that participants did not consent to having their data shared.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; grants RGPIN-2016-06282 and PGSD-475444-2015).

Notes on contributors

Sebastian P. Dys

Sebastian Dys, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Simon Fraser University in the Department of Psychology. His interests include how cognitive, temperamental, and socialization factors influence children’s moral emotions and behaviors.

Marc Jambon

Marc Jambon, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University. His research focuses on the social-emotional and moral correlates of aggression and prosociality in childhood.

Stephanie Buono

Stephanie Buono, completed her graduate studies at the University of Toronto, Ontario Institute or Studies in Education, and is now managing community outreach programming in mental health promotion and prevention at the University Health Network (UHN), Toronto General Hospital.

Tina Malti

Tina Malti, is the founding director of the Center for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy, and Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto Mississauga. She is also the President of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD). Her research focuses on social-emotional development and mental health in children experiencing varying levels of adversity.