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Children's allocation of resources in social dominance situations

Rawan Charafeddine1, Hugo Mercier1, Fabrice Clément2

  • 1Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod - CNRS University of Lyon.

Developmental Psychology
|September 27, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Children

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Behavioral Economics

Background:

  • Children's understanding of fairness and resource distribution is crucial for social development.
  • Previous research on distributive justice has explored adult behavior in various social contexts.
  • The developmental trajectory of resource allocation in hierarchical social structures remains less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how children aged 3 to 8 years allocate resources in situations involving social dominance.
  • To examine whether children reinforce or counteract dominance asymmetries when distributing resources.
  • To identify age-related patterns in children's resource distribution strategies in dominance contexts.

Main Methods:

  • Two experiments were conducted with preschoolers and 8-year-old children.
  • Experiment 1 utilized a resource giving task, while Experiment 2 employed a resource taking task.
  • Participants' decisions were analyzed in relation to the established dominance hierarchy between individuals.

Main Results:

  • Children across all age groups considered dominance when allocating resources.
  • Younger children (3-4 years) tended to favor the dominant individual.
  • Older children (8 years) showed a clear preference for the subordinate, while 5-year-olds displayed no preference.

Conclusions:

  • Children's resource distribution strategies evolve with age and are influenced by social dominance.
  • Early childhood may involve reinforcing existing social hierarchies, while later childhood shifts towards promoting equity.
  • The findings offer insights into the development of fairness, justice, and social cognition in children.

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