Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Little is known about whether humans show moral concern for harmful actions toward non-human entities like plants, or if how others treat plants influences social preferences. It is also unclear when these possible concerns develop. We address these gaps in two studies: Study 1 with adults (n=153) and Study 2 with 3- to 6-year-old children (n=129). Participants watched a video of a plant restorer who restored a plant but knocked down a bucket, and a plant harmer who restored a bucket but knocked down a plant. Adults preferred the plant restorer over the plant harmer, chose the plant harmer as the bad guy, and evaluated it more positively for restoring the plant than the bucket. Children showed similar patterns—especially those with greater biology knowledge—but did not prefer the plant restorer. These findings help understand early moral reasoning regarding non-human nature and how people value living versus nonliving entities.