Differences in Blame-Like and Forgiveness-Like Judgments between Young People, Healthy Older People, and Older People with Dementia

Abstract

The objective of the present experimental study was to compare how young people, healthy older people, and older people with dementia cognitively integrated<em> </em>three factors (Intention, Consequence, and Apology) when making blame-like judgments (prosecution and revenge) and forgiveness-like judgments (resentment and reconciliation). Thirty-four young people (<em>Mage </em>= 22.12, <em>SD </em>= 3.44), 22 healthy older people (<em>Mage </em>= 71.82, <em>SD </em>= 8.69), and 18 older people with dementia (<em>Mage </em>= 75, <em>SD </em>= 10.06) participated in the study. The participants were confronted with 12 scenarios built by combining the three factors for each moral judgment. Analyses of variance with repeated measures were applied to the study data. Whatever the type of judgment, older people with dementia differed from young people and healthy older people about the number of factors considered. Young people and healthy older people used the three information cues (Intent, Consequence, and Apology) for the four judgment tasks (prosecution, revenge, reconciliation, and resentment). In comparison, older people with dementia gave greater weight to Intention. In contrast to young and healthy older people, older people with dementia processed blame-like and forgiveness-like judgments similarly. The cognitive impairment prevented older people with dementia from differentiating moral judgments into two categories and reduced information integration when making moral judgments. These findings might be useful for clinical practice.

Changes Over Time in Information Integration Among Older People with Dementia: Judgments of Blame and Forgiveness

“…The objective of our study was to assess the change over time (every 3 months) in cognitive processes in information integration, i.e., how Intention, Consequence, and Apology factors were combined in moral judgments of blame and forgiveness. Our first hypothesis was that the older people with dementia would give greater importance to the Intention factor in both types of moral judgment at time T0 [12,13]. The results confirmed that Intention appeared to be an invariant factor [12,13].…”

“…Our first hypothesis was that the older people with dementia would give greater importance to the Intention factor in both types of moral judgment at time T0 [12,13]. The results confirmed that Intention appeared to be an invariant factor [12,13]. Considering Intention alone may be due to the cognitive impairment associated with dementia [3].…”

“…Decroix et al [12] also highlighted that dementia negatively impacted judgments concerning blame (prosecution and revenge) and forgiveness (reconciliation and resentment). However, these studies did not investigate how the integration of information in moral judgments changed over time in individuals with dementia.…”

“…We considered three hypotheses. Firstly, at the beginning of the study (T0), older people with dementia would give greater importance to the intention factor in both blame and forgiveness judgments [12,13]. Secondly, MMSE scores would be lower at 15 months (T15) compared to the baseline (T0) [8].…”

“…It also affects the cognitive processes when establishing moral judgments. Fontaine et al [11] and Decroix et al [12,13] conducted research studies based on Anderson's information integration framework [14,15] to understand how individuals combine various factors when making moral judgments. Decroix et al [13] extended Fontaine et al's [11] study by comparing healthy young adults, healthy older adults, and older adults with dementia in terms of their judgments of blame and forgiveness.…”