Children consider what others didn’t know as well as what they couldn’t do when judging their actions

From at least age 6 children consider what someone could have done when judging their actions. Children are more lenient in their judgments of others’ actions if there was no other choice but to cause a bad outcome, as compared to when there was another choice available that would have avoided a bad outcome. Here we explore if children also consider knowledge of one’s options when judging actions. That is, are children equally lenient if someone makes a bad choice because they didn’t know another option was available? We tested children in China (N = 133), India (N = 133) and the USA (N = 146) aged between 5 and 10. We told children stories about three characters who either 1) had a choice and caused a bad outcome; 2) had no choice but to cause a bad outcome and 3) do not know they had a choice, and caused a bad outcome. Broadly, we find that children across all countries are more lenient of bad actions when characters in the story did not know they had another choice available. Overall, these findings provide evidence that children consider what others didn’t know, as well as what they couldn’t do, when judging their actions.