Social influences on inequity aversion in children

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Social Neuroscience
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Inequity aversion, the willingness to sacrifice personal gain to avoid unfairness, is observed in both adults and children.
• Disadvantageous inequity aversion emerges around age 4, while advantageous inequity aversion emerges around age 8.
• The influence of social context on children's inequity aversion remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of social context on inequity aversion in children aged 4 to 9 years.
• To differentiate between social and nonsocial factors influencing inequity aversion.
• To examine the developmental trajectories of disadvantageous and advantageous inequity aversion in social settings.

Main Methods:

• Two experiments were conducted with 4- to 9-year-old children.
• Experiment 1 assessed inequity aversion when the experimenter controlled reward distribution versus when it was predetermined.
• Experiment 2 compared children's rejection of unequal rewards in the presence versus absence of a peer.

Main Results:

• Children's inequity rejection rates were similar regardless of experimenter control, indicating decisions based on allocations, not elicitation.
• Disadvantageous inequity aversion was partly explained by nonsocial factors but significantly enhanced by the presence of a peer.
• Advantageous inequity aversion was almost exclusively observed in the social context, suggesting it is a genuinely social phenomenon.

Conclusions:

• Social context plays a crucial role in shaping inequity aversion in children, particularly for advantageous inequity.
• Disadvantageous inequity aversion has both social and nonsocial components, while advantageous inequity aversion appears primarily social.
• This study provides insights into the ontogeny of fairness concerns and raises questions about the evolutionary basis of inequity aversion.