Children discard a resource to avoid inequity.

Abstract

Elucidating how inequity aversion (a tendency to dislike and correct unequal outcomes) functions as one develops is important to understanding more complex fairness considerations in adulthood. Although previous research has demonstrated that adults and children reduce inequity, it is unclear if people are actually responding negatively to inequity or if people dislike others getting more than them (motivated by social comparison) and like to share maximal resources, especially with those who have few resources (motivated by social welfare preferences). In order to evaluate if children are truly averse to inequity, we had 3- to 8-year-old children distribute resources to 3rd parties and found that 6- to 8-year-old children would rather throw a resource in the trash than distribute unequally, suggesting that concerns with equity can trump concerns with maximal sharing. We also demonstrated that children's reactions were not based on wanting to avoid upsetting the recipients or based on a preference for visual symmetry and that children will even throw away a resource that could have gone to themselves in order to avoid inequity. These results demonstrate the existence of inequity aversion in children, provide a new method for studying inequity aversion specifically, and suggest the need for new models to explain why inequity aversion may have evolved.

Age-Related Changes in Children's Resource Giving: How Social Categories and Fairness Considerations Influence Distribution Decisions

“…This is inconsistent with literature which suggests older children discard resources in order to be fair (Shaw & Olson, 2012). However, it was revealed that children were becoming more equitable over time, exhibiting less bias with more trials.…”

“…Furthermore, based upon prior literature on social preferences (Kinzler et al, 2009), when race and accent are pitted against one another (i.e., presented incongruently), children are expected to give more resources to their accent ingroup over their race in-group. Finally, older children are expected to discard a resource and favour fairness and therefore be less influenced by in-group bias (Shaw & Olson, 2012).…”

“…According to Fehr and colleagues (2008), most 7-to 8-year-old children are adverse to either advantageous or disadvantageous resource distribution. In fact, research has also demonstrated that children do discard resources in order to be fair (Shaw & Olson, 2012), but this may be a strategy only older children employ.…”

“…Secondly, the limited research which has been conducted has largely sampled younger children. Given literature on resource distribution has demonstrated that older children strongly favour fairness (e.g., Fehr et al, 2008;Shaw & Olson, 2012), it is not yet known how an in-group bias in resource distribution may continue to develop across children"s age and how the tension between a desire to be fair and an in-group bias may interact. Thirdly, research has established children are constantly weighing up different pieces Advances in Social Science,Education and Humanities Research,volume 139 of information in their social evaluations of others (e.g., Cooley & Killen, 2015;Killen, 2007;Kinzler & Dejesus, 2013).…”

Young children, but not chimpanzees, are averse to disadvantageous and advantageous inequities

“…Various studies report different results depending on the context in which children are observed, the role of adults in the process, and the alternatives children have at their disposal in the test situation. Most straightforward, in thirdparty situations where they must distribute resources among others, children from as young as 3 years show a very strong bias for equal distributions (e.g., Frydman & Bryant, 1988;Olson & Spelke, 2008;Peterson, Peterson, & McDonald, 1975;Rochat et al, 2009;Shaw & Olson, 2012). When young children themselves are among the recipients, however, the situation becomes more complicated.…”