Are the Competent the Morally Good? Perspective Taking and Moral Motivation of Children Involved in Bullying

• DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00516.x
• Publication Date: 2009-01-07T02:31:24Z
• Authors: Luciano Gasser; Monika Keller
• Keywords: Prosocial Behavior

Abstract The present study tested the hypothesis of cognitively competent but morally insensitive bully. On basis teacher and peer ratings, 212 young elementary school children were selected categorized as bullies, bully–victims, victims, prosocial children. Children's perspective‐taking skills assessed using theory‐of‐mind tasks, moral motivation was with a task about emotion attributions after rule transgressions. Analyses at group level revealed that only not characterized by deficit in perspective taking, while both aggressive groups showed motivation. individual level, however, bullies more heterogeneous group, including an asymmetry between taking motivation, well scoring consistently low or high on measures. findings highlight importance distinguishing (1) strategic social–cognitive competencies (2) different subgroups bullies.