Table 3.
Justifications for Judgments that Agent Should Help
| Justification category | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Situation | Autonomy | Evaluation | Material | Others’ interest | Agent interest | Organization | Other | None |
| Children: Hypothetical events | ||||||||
| High cost / low benefit | .00 | .28 | .00 | .38 | .08 | .03 | .00 | .23 |
| Low cost / high benefit | .00 | .23 | .00 | .62 | .06 | .00 | .00 | .11 |
| Relationship | .00 | .29 | .13 | .21 | .25 | .04 | .04 | .08 |
| No relationship | .00 | .29 | .29 | .21 | .04 | .00 | .00 | .17 |
| Stealing | .00 | .17 | .00 | .56 | .00 | .00 | .00 | .33 |
| No stealing | .00 | .35 | .00 | .48 | .26 | .00 | .00 | .00 |
| Adults: Hypothetical events | ||||||||
| High cost / low benefit | .04 | .25 | .00 | .67 | .63 | .04 | .00 | .00 |
| Low cost / high benefit | .02 | .23 | .00 | .72 | .56 | .02 | .00 | .00 |
| Relationship | .48 | .04 | .04 | .16 | .68 | .04 | .00 | .00 |
| No relationship | .20 | .40 | .00 | .20 | .20 | .20 | .00 | .00 |
| Stealing | .00 | .00 | .00 | .50 | .50 | .00 | .00 | .00 |
| No stealing | .00 | .24 | .00 | .52 | .84 | .00 | .00 | .00 |
| Children: Own events | ||||||||
| Home | .00 | .32 | .23 | .27 | .07 | .00 | .00 | .11 |
| Friends | .00 | .48 | .05 | .10 | .07 | .07 | .02 | .17 |
| School | .00 | .35 | .12 | .21 | .07 | .00 | .07 | .12 |
Note. Cells show proportions of participants saying the agent should act who used each justification category.