Item Details

abstract

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.

subject

Children

Knowledge

Morality

contributor

Anderson, Rajen Alexander (author)

Masicampo, Emer James (committee chair)

Fleeson, William (committee member)

Jayawickreme, Eranda (committee member)

Krcmar, Marina (committee member)

date

2014-07-10T08:35:35Z (accessioned)

2016-07-10T08:30:10Z (available)

2014 (issued)

degree

Psychology (discipline)

embargo

2016-07-10 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/39290 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

title

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

type

Thesis