Environmental Moral Cognition in Children and Adults

How does environmental moral cognition emerge in childhood? The present research examined individuals’ moral judgments of environmental actions and their choices in an environmental trade-off task in a sample of N = 555 young adults (Study 1) and N = 84 children ages 3.5–10 (Study 2) in the United States. We show that both children and adults viewed pro-environmental behavior positively and environmental harm negatively – even if the action was sanctioned by an authority figure. However, both children and adults showed stronger moral judgments about actions impacting other people than those impacting the environment. Among children, judgments of environmental actions strengthened with age, as did their tendency to make pro-environmental choices in the trade-off task. Adults’ judgments of environmentally harmful actions were linked to their pro-environmental choices, whereas children’s judgments of both environmentally helpful and harmful actions were related to their pro-environmental choices. These findings highlight both age-related similarities and differences in environmental moral cognition among U.S. children and adults, and point to the potential to draw upon the moral convictions of children and adults alike to be a part of the climate solution.