Preschoolers distribute scarce resources according to the moral valence of recipients' previous actions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9787342 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ben Kenward (0000-0002-8472-7172, Uppsala University, corresponding author), Matilda Dahl (0000-0003-0005-2081, Uppsala University) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 47 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1054-1064 |
| Publication date | 2011-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Developmental Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0012-1649 • E-ISSN: 1939-0599 |
| Publisher | American Psychological Association (APA) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1037/a0023869 |
| PMID | 21604863 |
| OpenAlex | W2000513843 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 49 |
| References cited | 27 |
Children aged 3 years and 41⁄2 years old watched a puppet, struggling to achieve goals, who was helped by a 2nd puppet and violently hindered by a 3rd. The children then distributed wooden biscuits between the helper and hinderer. In Experiment 1, when distributing a small odd number of biscuits, 41⁄2-year-olds (N = 16) almost always gave more to the helper. Children verbally justified their unequal distributions by reference to the helper's prosocial behavior or the hinderer's antisocial behavior. In Experiment 2, when biscuits were more plentiful, 41⁄2-year-olds (N = 16) usually gave equal numbers to helper and hinderer, indicating that 41⁄2-year-olds usually preferred not to distribute unequally unless forced to by resource scarcity. Three-year-olds (N = 16 in Experiment 1, N = 20 in Experiment 3) gave more biscuits equally often to the helper and to the hinderer. In many cases, this was because they were confused as to the identities and actions of the puppets, possibly because they were shocked by the hinderer's actions. Two fundamental moral behaviors are therefore demonstrated in young preschoolers: indirect reciprocity of morally valenced acts and a preference for equality when distributing resources, although the cognitive bases for these behaviors remain unclear. These results join other recent studies in demonstrating that the seeds of complex moral understanding and behavior are found early in development
Cognition · Developmental psychology · Moral behavior · Moral development · Moral disengagement · Preference · Prosocial behavior · Reciprocity (cultural anthropology · Valence (chemistry · Child and Animal Learning Development · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social Psychology
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How infants and toddlers react to antisocial others
The early origins of human charity
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Young Children’s Understanding of Helping as Increasing Another Agent’s Utility
La ontogenia de la cognición cooperativa y las normas de equidad en dilemas distributivos
Children seek out observations that can reveal a partner’s generosity
Early prosociality is conditional on opportunity cost and familiarity with the target
Resource value influences distributive justice behaviors of three- to five-year-old Chinese children
Children’s distributive justice behavior probably not matching their understanding
The development of intent-based moral judgment and moral behavior in the context of indirect reciprocity
Elementary school children’s perspectives on distributive justice in trade
Not just what you did, but how
Toddlers' interventions toward fair and unfair individuals
Not just if, but how much
Give and take
Win-win or lose-lose
When it is ok to give the Robot Less
Waste management
Preschoolers’ Distributive Justice When They Distribute Few Total Rewards in a Third‐Party Task
Young White children’s allocation and punishment behaviors toward White and Black peers
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Building a cooperative child
Merit Is Not Meritorious Everywhere
Sharing and asking for help
Children’s sociomoral judgements of antisocial but not prosocial others depend on recipients’ past moral behaviour
The effect of intent and character information on children's evaluations of third‐party transgressions
Equal But Not Always Fair
Preschoolers prefer in‐group to out‐group members, but equally condemn their immoral acts
Development of children's informal understanding of division through sharing
Toddlers' expectations of third‐party punishments and rewards following an act of aggression
Five‐year‐olds punish antisocial adults
Children’s evaluations of resource allocation in the context of group norms
The influence of peer relationship on preschoolers' merit-based resource allocation in first-party and third-party contexts
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Children’s reasoning about distributive and retributive justice across development
Acting on observed social exclusion
The development of recipient-dependent sharing behavior and sharing expectations in preschool children
Preschoolers are able to take merit into account when distributing goods
Children’s allocation of resources in social dominance situations
Selectivity in toddlers’ behavioral and emotional reactions to prosocial and antisocial others
Giving a larger amount or a larger proportion
Children’s recognition of fairness and others’ welfare in a resource allocation task
Effect of physical appearance on evaluation of “goodness” or “badness” in young children
Social reality in inclusive early childhood education settings
Why people prefer unequal societies
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Preschool Children's Conceptions of Moral and Social Rules
Social norms and human cooperation
Social Interactions and the Development of Social Concepts in Preschool Children
“Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective
Evolution of indirect reciprocity
Three‐month‐olds show a negativity bias in their social evaluations
Peer relations in childhood
The New Synthesis in Moral Psychology
Social evaluation by preverbal infants
Punishment in animal societies
Conflicts between Children
The Role of Conscious Reasoning and Intuition in Moral Judgment
Egalitarianism in young children
The emotional dog and its rational tail
Children's Understanding of the Nature of Television Characters
When Child Development Meets Economic Game Theory
Foundations of cooperation in young children
The Ontogenesis of Social Dominance
Helping and Cooperation at 14 Months of Age
When Getting Something Good is Bad
Sympathy through affective perspective taking and its relation to prosocial behavior in toddlers
Reciprocity of exchange in toddler sharing behavior
Preschoolers' understanding of lies and innocent and negligent mistakes
The roots of human altruism
Not all emotions are created equal
Strong Reciprocity and the Roots of Human Morality
| Unique citing works | 49 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,27 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 48 |