The current study modeled the attributions underlying moral concern for animals during childhood and adulthood with the aim of better understanding how concern for animals develops. In total, 241 children aged 6–10 years and 152 adults appraised a range of animals on seven appraisal dimensions and, subsequently rank-ordered which animals they would save in a medicine allocation task. Structural equation modeling revealed several developmental continuities and discontinuities in the dimensions children and adults used to evaluate animal lives. Whereas participants of all ages valued animals based on their aesthetic qualities, intelligence, and perceived similarity to humans, younger children valued animal aesthetics most of all. They also valued benevolence in animals more than older children and adults. Only older children and adults comprehended and valued animals on the basis of their utility as food for humans. Furthermore, neither younger nor older children grasped the role of sentience in the valuation of animals. Only adults factored sentience into their view of what makes animals similar to humans and worthy of moral concern. The results highlight the ways in which moral concern for animals changes across development in several important respects, reflecting an increasingly human-centric orientation.

目前的研究模拟了童年和成年期间对动物道德关注的潜在归因，目的是更好地了解对动物的关注是如何发展的。总共有 241 名 6-10 岁的儿童和 152 名成人在七个评估维度上对一系列动物进行了评估，然后对他们将在药物分配任务中保存的动物进行排序。结构方程模型揭示了用于评估动物生命的儿童和成人维度的几个发展连续性和不连续性。尽管所有年龄段的参与者都根据动物的审美品质、智力和感知到的与人类的相似性来评价动物，但年幼的孩子最看重动物的美学。他们也比年长的儿童和成人更重视动物的仁慈。只有年龄较大的儿童和成年人才能根据动物作为人类食物的用途来理解和重视它们。此外，无论是年幼还是年长的孩子都无法理解感知在动物估价中的作用。只有成年人才会将感知因素纳入他们对动物与人类相似并值得道德关注的看法中。结果突出了对动物的道德关注在几个重要方面随着发展而变化的方式，反映了越来越以人为中心的取向。