Adolescents' judgments about resource inequality involving group disparities

To understand complex and multifaceted nature of judgments about equality, this research investigated adolescents' judgments and reasoning about social inequalities among different social groups. Adolescents ranging in age from 12 to 17 years (N = 72) were presented with hypothetical situations depicting inequalities in distribution of resources among different groups based on social class, race, and gender. The situations bearing on social class inequalities involved allocation of resources associated with levels of personal wealth, and the other situations pertained to inequalities based on group characteristics of race and gender. Although the majority of adolescents negatively evaluated the inequalities in all situations, fewer judged the inequalities as unacceptable in the situations pertaining to social class inequalities involving personal goods. The evaluations about the inequalities based on race or gender were not contingent on conflicting personal choices, authority, rules, or common practices and were justified mostly with considerations of equality. However, when making judgments about inequalities based on social class, adolescents attended to the need to promote others' welfare and nonmoral concerns in the personal and conventional domains.