Children's allocation of resources in social dominance situations

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_5953203F5B9C
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Children's allocation of resources in social dominance situations
Journal
Developmental Psychology
Author(s)
Charafeddine R, Mercier H, Clément F, Kaufmann L, Reboul A, Van der Henst J-B
Publication state
Published
Issued date
10/11/2016
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
52
Number
11
Pages
.1843-1857
Language
english
Abstract
Two experiments with preschoolers (36 to 78 months) and 8-year-old children (Experiment 1, N=173, Experiment 2, N=132) investigated the development of children's resource distribution in dominance contexts. On the basis of the distributive justice literature, two opposite predictions were tested. Children could match resource allocation with the unequal social setting they observe and thus favor a dominant individual over a subordinate one. Alternatively, children could choose to compensate the subordinate if they consider that the dominance asymmetry should be counteracted.
Two experiments using different tasks as well as different dominance scenarios led to the same results. In both experiments, children took dominance into account when allocating resources. Moreover, their distributive decisions were similarly affected by age: while 3- and 4-year-old children favored the dominant individual, 5-year-olds showed no preference and 8-year-olds strongly favored the subordinate. The results are interpreted in the light of the evolution from a status quo oriented behavior in preschool to an ethical stance in school years.
Keywords
Social cognition, Distributive justice, Dominance, Moral development
Create date
16/06/2016 8:51
Last modification date
21/08/2019 5:11
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