Evaluations versus expectations: children's divergent beliefs about resource distribution
Jasmine M Dejesus1, Marjorie Rhodes, Katherine D Kinzler
1Department of Psychology, University of Chicago.
Cognitive Science
|October 15, 2013
Summary
Children value fairness but expect group favoritism. This study shows that as children age, their judgments about resource distribution diverge, with older children preferring egalitarianism but anticipating ingroup bias.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Moral Development
Background:
- Children exhibit a conflict between egalitarianism and ingroup favoritism when distributing resources.
- Understanding how children evaluate and anticipate resource distribution behaviors is crucial for developmental and social psychology.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the divergence between children's evaluations of fairness and their expectations of resource distribution behaviors.
- To examine how age influences children's perceptions of egalitarianism versus ingroup favoritism in resource allocation.
Main Methods:
- Four- to 10-year-old children participated in an experiment involving resource distribution scenarios.
- Children viewed events depicting intergroup competition and resource allocation to ingroups, outgroups, or equally.
- Two conditions assessed children's evaluations (niceness) and expectations (likelihood) of observed behaviors.
Main Results:
- Children's evaluations and expectations regarding resource distribution diverged with age.
- Older children evaluated egalitarian resource distribution more favorably.
- However, older children also expected resource distribution to favor their own group (ingroup favoritism).
Conclusions:
- Children's moral judgments (evaluations) do not align with their predictions of actual social behavior (expectations).
- This developmental divergence highlights a complex understanding of social norms and self-interest in children.
- Findings suggest that children recognize fairness ideals but anticipate self-serving or group-serving actions in competitive contexts.
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