我在网上找到介绍这个实验的一个较详细版本：
Dr G. Tamarin, an Israeli psychologist, investigated this question in 1963. He published his results in a document entitled:
A Pilot Study in Chauvinism: The Influence of Ethnico-Religious Prejudices on Moral Judgement. The research presented 1,066 [israeli non-arab] schoolchildren of ages 8 to 14 with two texts and asked them to answer two questions concerning each text and to explain their answers. The answers were analysed.
The main part of the first text reads:
You are well acquainted with the following passages from the book of Joshua: ˜So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets; and it came to pass when the people heard the sound of the trumpet and the people shouted with a great shout and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went into the city every man straight ahead and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass with the edge of the sword. (VI, 20, 21) And that day Joshua took Makkedah and smote it with the edge of the sword and the kings thereof he utterly destroyed and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.
The children were then asked to answer the following questions:
1. Do you think that Joshua, and the Sons of Israel acted right or not? Explain your view.
2. Suppose the Israeli army conquers an Arab village in battle. Do you think it would be proper to act against the inhabitants as did Joshua with the people of Jericho and Makkedah? Explain your view.
Out of the total of 1,066 children questioned, the number of those who fully approved of Joshua's method and its application to Arabs was around 600; about 200 expressed total disapproval; the rest expressed partial approval or disapproval.
The same children were then presented with a 'Chinese version' of the same story, which read:
General Lin, who founded the Chinese kingdom some 3,000 years ago went to war with his army to conquer them a land. They came to some great cities with high walls and strong fortresses. The Chinese War God appeared to General Lin in a dream and promised him victory, ordering him to kill all living souls in the cities, because these people belonged to other religions. General Lin and his soldiers took the towns and utterly destroyed all that was therein, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep, and ass with the edge of the sword. After destroying the cities they continued their way conquering many countries.
They were then asked 'Do you think that General Lin and his soldiers acted right or wrong? Explain your view.'
The answers were classified as above. The number of those who totally approved of Lin's method was about 70; those who totally disapproved about 750; the rest expressed partial approval or disapproval.
The analysis of the answers was: On the Joshua question: 60% 20% 20%, On the General Lin question 7% 18% 75%, in the order total approval, partial approval or disapproval and total disapproval.
窃以为这并不是一个完美的心理测试。首先，测试者没有说明这1000多个以色列小孩的宗教背景。在以色列也有很多世俗家庭，不是每个小孩都从小接受宗教的熏陶。更合适的对照应该是比较信教家庭和非信教家庭的小孩对同一问题的回答来评估宗教的影响;其次，用于测试的两段文字语言风格完全不同，前者取自圣经，受过宗教熏陶的小孩读起来可能更有神圣感和亲切感，由此产生对Joshua的认同并不一定就涉及到道德的评判，而后者只是一个语言通俗的故事，孩子们的回答反而更能反映对善恶的认识。最后，测试者没有说明这些孩子事先对这个故事是否知晓。信教家庭的孩子很有可能以前就听过这个故事，而且这个故事不会是孤立的，还和其它歌颂上帝的故事相联系。孩子答题的时候必然会受到他所知道的其它故事的影响。而林将军的故事对孩子来说是完全陌生的，他们甚至连中国在哪里都可能不知道。这两个故事绝不仅仅是人物和地点的替换，拿来作对比是不恰当的。