The cross-cultural temporal neurodynamics of fairness: A developmental machine-learning neuroscience investigation

A sense of fairness is deeply rooted in human nature, and plays a fundamental role in supporting cooperation. This study investigated the electrophysiological responses to third-party resource allocations and behavioral economics games assessing costly sharing and distributive justice decisions in early and middle childhood across three countries, France, Taiwan, and the United States. To examine the temporal dynamics and cultural differences in the neural development of fairness considerations, both traditional event-related potential and artificial neural network methods were employed. Results demonstrate a marked lack of cross-cultural differences in the electrophysiological profile of fairness yet notable cross-cultural differences in the functional link between electrophysiology and actual distributive behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).