We tested whether children growing up in the Dominican Republic (D.R.), a context with relatively high governmental corruption levels, would support versus distance themselves from widespread unethical practices like bribery. In Experiment 1 (moral judgments; n = 106), D.R. elementary schoolers and adults evaluated judges who accepted gifts from contestants before or after selecting contest winners and predicted whether bribe-taking judges would be secretive. Like adults, older-but not younger-D.R. elementary schoolers differentially condemned judges who accepted gifts before versus after picking contest winners. Unlike adults, children often predicted that judges would disclose receiving gifts. In Experiment 2 (moral behaviors; n = 44), D.R. elementary schoolers could secretly accept or reject a bribe in exchange for 1st place while judging a drawing contest. All but two children rejected the bribe. Together, these findings stand in contrast with U.S. bribery-related developmental trends (Reyes-Jaquez & Koenig, 2021, 2022) and support this contention: When growing up in a more morally heterogeneous context like the D.R., children eventually assume a critical and differentiated stance toward-and will resist or subvert-some of their culture's unethical practices. Greater exposure to a wide range of unethical transactions might hinder aspects of bribery-related moral development early on, depending on how these aspects are measured (moral judgment vs. behavior). Nevertheless, over time, such exposure may strengthen children's capacity to resist unethical cultural practices, indicated by children's overwhelming rejection of bribes. We discuss the importance of including diverse response modalities (verbal, behavioral) when measuring psychological constructs in non-Western societies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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政府腐败是帮助还是阻碍早期道德发展？来自多米尼加共和国和美国背景的见解。


我们测试了在多米尼加共和国 （D.R.） 长大的儿童是否会支持而不是远离贿赂等普遍存在的不道德行为。在实验 1（道德判断;n = 106）中，D.R. 小学生和成人评估了在选出比赛获胜者之前或之后接受参赛者礼物的评委，并预测了收受贿赂的评委是否会保密。像成年人一样，年长但不年轻 DR小学生对在挑选比赛获胜者之前和之后接受礼物的评委进行了不同的谴责。与成年人不同，孩子们经常预测法官会披露收到礼物的情况。在实验 2（道德行为;n = 44）中，D.R. 小学生在评判绘画比赛时可以偷偷接受或拒绝贿赂以换取第一名。除了两个孩子外，其他所有孩子都拒绝了贿赂。这些发现与美国贿赂相关的发展趋势形成对比（Reyes-Jaquez & Koenig，2021,2022年，并支持这一论点： 当在像D.R.这样道德差异较大的环境中成长时，孩子们最终会对他们的文化中的一些不道德行为采取批判和差异化的立场，并将抵制或颠覆。更多地接触各种不道德交易可能会阻碍与贿赂相关的道德发展的早期方面，具体取决于如何衡量这些方面（道德判断与行为）。然而，随着时间的推移，这种暴露可能会增强儿童抵制不道德文化习俗的能力，儿童对贿赂的压倒性拒绝就表明了这一点。 我们讨论了在测量非西方社会的心理结构时包括不同反应模式（语言、行为）的重要性。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。