Morality in adolescent life

Morality is a cornerstone of human social life, yet much of moral psychology has focused on in-lab experiments that trace its emergence in early childhood or manifestation in adulthood. In this study, we take an alternative approach, capturing real-time adolescent moral experiences via ecological momentary assessment (Nsample = 189, Nage = 12-18 years, Nresponses = 2,518). Contrary to the assumption that morality emerges rarely in daily life, adolescents reported morally-valenced events frequently and with rich emotional and relational content. These findings offer new insight into how young people perceive, interpret, and moralize everyday social encounters.