About this session

Friday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

How Children and Adults Deal With Disagreements about Facts and Morality

Disagreements can teach us lessons–or create conflicts. If we think the other person knows something we do not, we might listen to them; if we think them wrong but reasonable, we might reason with them; but if we think them evil, we might shun or attack them–especially when the disagreement concerns an issue we care about.

Children face disagreements from their first clashes with parents and peers. Youth and adults face disagreements about scientific facts, like the causes of climate change, and moral issues, like the right to abortion. The study of intrapersonal contradiction, Piagetian disequilibrium, has a long history, as does the study of children’s conflictual interactions. By contrast, this symposium features the underexplored topic of how children and adults learn to understand their factual and moral disagreements, and how they use those understandings.

The first presentation investigates rational discourse in early childhood. Facing conflicting empirical evidence, children engaged in reason-giving discourse, displaying the capacities necessary for functioning democracies.
The second presentation compares desire for belief accuracy versus in-group loyalty in children and adults. Results show that across beliefs and ages, the pursuit of accuracy outweighs in-group loyalty.

The third talk focuses on when emerging adults perceive moral disagreements as reasonable. Complex and unfamiliar issues were seen as more open to disagreement, influencing participants' attitudes towards those they disagreed with.

The discussant, an international leader in research on social and moral development, will identify key conclusions about the role that moral disagreements play in promoting developmental and societal change.

Paper #1
Title	Children from China, Kenya, and the US exchange reasons to resolve disagreements
Presenting author	Antonia Frederike Langenhoff, Stanford University, United States

Paper #2
Title	In disagreements about group-based beliefs, children and adults think people should follow the evidence
Presenting author	Dr. Joshua Rottman, Ph.D., Franklin & Marshall College, United States

Paper #3
Title	Perceptions of Moral Reasonableness Among Emerging Adults: Sources and Consequences
Presenting author	Arvid Samuelson, Cornell University, United States

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Session chair
Arvid Samuelson, Cornell University, United States

Discussant
Dr. Melanie A. Killen, Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park, United States

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