Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Emergence of Deontic Reasoning

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Practical reasoning; Social reasoning

Definition

Reasoning about what one may, ought, or must not do in a given set of circumstances.

Introduction

Deontic reasoning is reasoning about what one may, must, or must not do in a given set of circumstances. Virtually all of our social institutions presuppose a capacity to understand and reason about what is permitted, obligated, prohibited, or advised. Failure to reason effectively about deontic concepts can have disastrous consequences, including social rejection, punishment, and even incarceration.

Deontic reference emerges quite early in children’s speech, appearing in children’s justifications of their behavior as early as 24 months of age.

Toddlers use terms such as must and may to talk about obligation and permission (e.g., “You must stay”), while epistemic uses of the same terms (e.g., “It must be raining”) do not reliably emerge until the 4th or 5th year of life.

Deontic reasoning is closely related to the concepts of social...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Canessa, N., Gorini, A., Cappa, S. F., Piattelli-Palmarini, M., Danna, M., Fazio, F., & Perani, D. (2005). The effect of social content on deductive reasoning: An fMRI study. Human Brain Mapping, 26, 30–43.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cosmides, L., & Tooby, J. (1989). Evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture, part II. Case study: A computational theory of social exchange. Ethology and Sociobiology, 10, 51–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, D. D. (1996a). Evidence of deontic reasoning in 3- and 4-year-olds. Memory & Cognition, 24, 823–829.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, D. D. (1996b). Evidence for the innateness of deontic reasoning. Mind & Language, 11, 160–190.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cummins, D. D., & Cummins, R. C. (1999). Biological preparedness and evolutionary explanation. Cognition, 73, B37–B53.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, P. L., & Nuñez, M. (1996). Understanding of permission rules by preschool children. Child Development, 67, 1572–1591.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harris, P. L., Núñez, M., & Brett, C. (2001). Let’s swap: Early understanding of social exchange by British and Nepali children. Memory & Cognition, 29, 757–764.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, M. F. H., & Tomasello, M. (2012). Young children enforce social norms. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21, 232–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silk, J.B. (2007). Social components of fitness in primate groups. Science, 317, 1347–1351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Lier, J., Revlin, R., & De Neys, W. (2013). Detecting cheaters without thinking: Testing the automaticity of the cheater detection module. PloS One, 8, e53827. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0053827.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Depertment of Psychology and Depatment of Philosophy, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA

    Denise D. Cummins

Authors
  1. Denise D. Cummins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Denise D. Cummins .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this entry

Cite this entry

Cummins, D.D. (2016). Emergence of Deontic Reasoning. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2629-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2629-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation