Representación de grupos sociales y generalización de disposiciones morales en la infancia

From an early age, children show complex knowledge about the functioning of social groups and the moral dispositions of the individuals that comprise them. Preschool-age children can infer common characteris-tics shared by members of the same social group and generalize moral dispositions among them. The current research aimed at a better understanding of the conditions under which children generalize moral dispositions among different types of groupings of individuals. Throughout two studies (n = 180), an inductive generalization par-adigm and variations of the characteristics of the social groups presented, the way in which 5 and 7-year-old chil-dren generalize moral dispositions was investigated. The results showed that the children did not only use the presence of common verbal labels among the members to guide generalization. On the contrary, this process seems more restricted depending on the observed characteristics of the social groups. These findings re-veal the early emergence of the identification of moral dispositions and the complexity of the generalization process among members of a social group.