Children in Kenya and the US are averse to epistemic injustice

This preregistered study investigated children's response to testimonial injustice in peer-to-peer dyadic interactions across two cultural contexts-Nanyuki, Kenya, and Berkeley, USA (N = 192, ages 4-10, 50% female; 2023-2024). In an inequity condition, an adult listener repeatedly believed one child over another when they offered conflicting testimony. In a control condition, the listener disbelieved both children. Children in both societies evaluated the listener as fair in the control condition and unfair in the inequity condition regardless of whether they were believed or disbelieved. There was cross-cultural variation in the age of onset for these moral judgments, and different patterns of emotional responses. These findings point to an early-emerging sensitivity to whether someone's voice is given fair consideration across two cultural contexts.