Situational influence on moral justice: A study of "finking."

Piaget's notion of moral relativism with respect to peer-group standards was studied by placing 48 middle-class children (12.6-13.6 yr. old) in a situation in which they were questioned by an adult about their knowledge of a simulated transgression by a peer which they had witnessed earlier. Under these circumstances, every S was willing to incriminate the guilty confederate. However, the presence of an innocent peer deterred Ss from making such accusations, which suggested an implicit peer norm against "finking" by a colleague. Furthermore, this norm applied selectively to reporting guilt of a high-status peer, with no restraint against a low-status peer. Results suggest that situational conditions affect overt manifestation of overt justice, which in turn advises caution in interpreting results of investigations that utilize different operations for assessing conscience.