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News — Milan 15 April – Young children as young as five years old judge actions according to a kind of ‘internal moral code’ independent of the agent performing them. In fact, for a pre-school child, stealing or not sharing is always wrong, regardless of whether a peer or a robot does it. This tendency also extends to emotions: young children attribute negative emotions - sorrow, guilt - even to robots, as if they were capable of feeling. The idea that children ‘humanize’ robots is not new, but here it is even more evident: the shape, the movements, the perceived intention make the robot a moral agent in their eyes. Furthermore, researchers found interesting cultural differences in judgments and emotions.

These are the results of a study coordinated by Antonella Marchetti, Director of the Department of Psychology at the Università Cattolica, Milan Campus and of CERITOM (Centre for Research on Theory of Mind and Social Skills in the Life Cycle) in collaboration with scholars from Kyoto, Osaka and Warwick, and with colleagues Davide Massaro, Cinzia Di Dio, Federico Manzi and Giulia Peretti from the Università Cattolica in Milan, and published in the journal of Behaviour & Information Technology.

THE STUDY 

The research, involving Italian and Japanese children, explored the development of early moral judgments and how much it matters whether the protagonist of the transgression is a human or a robot.

Children were shown a character - sometimes a child, sometimes a robot - taking something that did not belong to her, him or it, or that refused to share something with others. Then researchers asked to the child: ‘Is this right or wrong?’ And again: ‘How do you think whoever did this feels? And you, if you were in their place, how would you feel? Professor Marchetti points out: The first result is surprising, as children make almost no difference between humans and robots when it comes to judging a moral action. For them, stealing or not sharing is always wrong. The judgment does not change regardless of whether it is a person or a robot acting immorally.

But if the distinction between human and robot seems blurred on a general level, the cultural differences between Italy and Japan emerge strongly with respect to judgments and emotions.

Italian children make harsher moral judgments, especially on a cognitive level: for them, stealing or not sharing is just ‘wrong’. The judgment is clear-cut, often oriented towards the result of the action; and, on an emotional level, compared to their Japanese peers, children attribute fewer negative emotions to the transgressors, almost as if the guilt were something external, linked more to the broken rule than to an internal feeling.

In contrast, Japanese children tend to attribute more negative emotions to the transgressors, especially when they do not share. This is probably related to different educational approaches: in Japan, the value of sharing and social harmony is taught from a very young age and emotions are a central tool for strengthening bonds and correcting behavior. It is no coincidence that there is a term in Japanese that has no equivalent in Italian - ‘Amae’ - which indicates the emotion connected to a deep sense of interdependence that pervades Japanese culture. 

Moreover, it is not uncommon that, when a child misbehaves, the adult punishes with disappointment or encourages to ‘think about how the other person felt’. And, in fact, when children from both countries are asked to imagine themselves as the offender, in scenarios of not sharing or stealing, the cultural differences blur. Everyone starts to experience more negative emotions: discomfort, guilt, empathy. But even here, Japanese children seem to feel everything more intensely. For them, even a robot can become an ‘other’ towards whom they feel empathy or guilt.

Professor Marchetti concludes: “In brief, morality is present even in the youngest children and it is powerful. But it takes different forms depending on the culture. In Italy, it seems more related to the rule and the outcome; in Japan, more to feeling and relationships”.

This research invites us to look at children with new eyes: as capable of active moral judges, with an inner compass, real emotions and a surprisingly lucid and profound look even at machines'.