{"pk":50287,"title":"Do People Value Plants Over Non-Living Entities? Moral Considerations in Adults and Young Children","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Is it more wrong to harm a plant than a rock? Little is known about the development of our moral consideration for plants—alive but not typically seen as having human-like minds. This study examined whether adults (N=153) and young children (pilot N=17) tend to value plants over non-living things. Participants watched a video of a plant restorer caring for a plant but knocking down a bucket and a plant harmer caring for a bucket but knocking down a plant. The proportion of adults who disliked or distrusted the plant harmer, and identified them as the bad guy—compared to the plant restorer—was significantly greater than chance (ps<.001). Additionally, participants judged harming the plant more severely than harming the bucket (p<.001). Although children judged harming the plant and bucket as similarly wrong, 65% of them liked the plant restorer more. After completing data collection, we will examine developmental differences.","language":"eng","license":{"name":"","short_name":"","text":null,"url":""},"keywords":[{"word":"Psychology; Development; Social cognition"}],"section":"Member Abstracts with Poster Presentation","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8dv8f8dz","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Lizette","middle_name":"","last_name":"Pizza","name_suffix":"","institution":"Harvard University","department":""},{"first_name":"Ashley","middle_name":"J","last_name":"Thomas","name_suffix":"","institution":"Harvard University","department":""}],"date_submitted":null,"date_accepted":null,"date_published":"2025-01-01T10:00:00-08:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"PDF","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/cognitivesciencesociety/article/50287/galley/38249/download/"}]}