Cultural variation shapes universal concerns for fairness in children

• In Event: 2-087 - Social influences and consequences of unfairness: Emotion, cognition, and culture

Integrative Statement

A concern for fairness is a key motivator of cooperation and prosociality, which develops at a young age. While younger children generally consider equal resource allocations to be fair, regardless of recipient differences, older children take equity cues of merit and deservingness into account in their fairness preferences. This study examined the developmental trajectory of equality and equity preferences in a large sample of children (N = 2,163) aged 4-11 in 13 countries: Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Jordan, Mexico, Norway, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. These countries varied in respect to individualism and collectivism as classified by the Hofstede scale (Hofstede, Hofstede & Monkiv, 2010). Recruited children were presented with three hypothetical scenarios (order counterbalanced) and allocated four resources between two recipients who differed in terms of material wealth, merit, and physical injury (eliciting different levels of empathy).

Results were analyzed using linear mixed effects models. Children across cultures and conditions exhibited a shift from equality to equity in their resource allocations with age, such that children favored the poor, hardworking, and injured over the rich, lazy, and uninjured with increasing age (in years) (B=0.58, p < .001). While this pattern was universal, important cultural differences appeared in the exact age that children shifted from equality to equity preferences and the magnitude of equity they endorsed. Adding Hofstede’s country-level coding as a continuous scale (0 = most collectivist, 100 = most individualist) to the models revealed an Age x Culture interaction (B = 0.07, p = .05). Specifically, children from more individualistic cultures favored the poor and hardworking to a greater extent in resource allocations compared to children from the more collectivist cultures, and did so at younger ages. In contrast, children from more collectivist cultures tended to favor injured recipients more than children from more individualistic cultures (B = -0.14, p =.005).

These findings suggest both cultural universals and differences children’s development of fairness conceptualizations. While all children appear to shift their distributive justice preferences from equal allocations to more equitable allocations with age, cultural values and orientations influence what individual factors are more deserving of reward. In particular, an individualist versus collectivist cultural orientation explains significant variation in children’s fairness allocations. Somewhat surprisingly, children from more individualist countries were more likely to favor the poor over the rich compared to children from more collectivist countries. We discuss potential interpretations of these effects and limitations of the individualist\collectivist view of culture.

Authors

• Elizabeth Huppert, The University of Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Jason M Cowell, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jean Decety, The University of Chicago
  Non-Presenting Author