Summary

Moral cognition describes the processes of interpretation, abstraction, reasoning, judgment, and evaluation when taking considerations of others’ welfare, rights, fairness, equality, and justice into account. The roots of these cognitive processes emerge early in development and grow in complexity as children navigate the social world through interactions with others. Preferences for helping in the first few years of life, along with cooperation and intentionality by 3 years of age, form the foundations for children’s later capacities to express categorical judgments of right and wrong, and engage in complex moral reasoning. Moral cognition enables children, adolescents, and adults to make decisions about some of the most salient issues in contemporary human society, including how to distribute resources fairly, and how to challenge systems of bias and prejudice that perpetuate social inequities between groups. Diverse theoretical perspectives on the development of moral cognition persist. Nevertheless, understanding the developmental trajectory of moral cognition remains a central focus for scientists and scholars concerned with the diversity and universality of human societies.