How do children adapt their fairness norm? Evidence from computational modeling.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Social functioning in children depends on context-appropriate decision-making.
• Children utilize social norms, modeled as shared expectations, for decision-making.
• Dynamic social norms require children to adapt their expectations and behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate children's ability to adapt fairness norms using social information.
• Identify the computational mechanisms underlying norm adaptation.
• Examine how children update fairness norms in response to social feedback.

Main Methods:

• Thirty children (7-11 years) participated in a modified Ultimatum Game.
• Norm adaptation was measured by changes in rejection rates after receiving low offers.
• Computational models were employed to analyze behavioral data and identify underlying mechanisms.

Main Results:

• Children significantly decreased their rejection rates after experiencing low offers, indicating norm adaptation.
• Behavioral data suggest children dynamically update their fairness norms.
• Computational modeling points to norm-prediction errors as a key mechanism.

Conclusions:

• School-aged children can adapt their fairness norms to changing social environments.
• This adaptation process relies on implicit social information and prediction error computation.
• This study provides the first computational approach to understanding norm adaptation in children.