Unethical Amnesia in Children and the Role Played by Time: An Exploratory Study
Unethical Amnesia in Children and the Role Played by Time: An Exploratory Study

Summary/Abstract: Previous research suggested that unethical amnesia occurs when adults repress their memories about unethical behavior in order to reduce the associated psychological distress. We explored this mechanism on a sample of 354 children aged 8 to 11, interested in finding out whether children would remember with higher accuracy positive and moral behaviors compared to negative and immoral ones. The experimental procedure involved a 2 (time: recent and distant) × 5 (valence: positive, negative, moral, immoral, neutral) between subjects and design. Results suggested that a) in the recent condition, children remembered more details about positive or moral behaviors than immoral and negative behaviors; b) in the distant condition, children remembered more accurate details about generally moral behaviors. Results are discussed within the developmental framework and further related implications.

• Details
• Contents