A Counterfactual Pathway to Responsibility Judgments in Children

Judgments of responsibility are foundational to human social life. Adults judge responsibility by considering not just what someone chose to do, but also the alternative choices available to them. Thus, the development of adult-like responsibility judgments in children depends on their capacity to reason about counterfactual choices. We distinguish three key elements of this capacity: first, understanding that counterfactual choices are possible, second, successfully reasoning about counterfactual worlds, and third, identifying the most relevant counterfactuals in any given situation. This framework clarifies the relationship between counterfactual reasoning and responsibility judgments in childhood, identifies conceptually distinct elements of children’s understanding of responsibly, and opens new avenues for inquiry into an essential element of children’s social reasoning.