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

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Children’s developing concept of fairness has been widely studied in the developmental literature. Interestingly, researchers have noted that while children show some conceptual knowledge of fairness in infancy, this knowledge is not necessarily reflected in their behavior until many years later (Blake, McAuliffe, Warneken, 2014; Smith, Blake, and Harris, 2013). One potential explanation for this disconnect is that although conceptual understanding of fairness should primarily rely on cognition, recent research suggests that fair behavior might be driven by a variety of factors, including both conceptual and social-emotional. For example, children’s responses to unfairness vary based on social context (e.g., Hamann, Bender, & Tomasello 2013), emotional factors (LoBue et al., 2011; Paulus and Moore, 2015, 2017), and culture (Blake et al., 2015). Further, being treated unfairly may likewise have consequences for subsequent emotional and cognitive functioning (Kessler et al., 2014).

Here we present three talks that discuss the role of social influences on children’s developing responses to unfairness, and its consequences for cognition. The first talk will present data on the influence of culture and social learning on children’s developing concerns for fairness across 13 countries. The second talk will discuss the role of a social partner on children’s emotional responses to an unfair distribution, and their subsequent sharing behavior. The third and final talk will focus on how being treated unfairly affects subsequent cognitive functioning. We will conclude with a discussion of the multiple interacting factors that might shape children’s developing fairness concepts and behavior.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chair

• Vanessa LoBue, Rutgers University

Discussant

• Peter R Blake, Boston University

Individual Presentations

• Cultural variation shapes universal concerns for fairness in children - Presenting Author: Elizabeth Huppert, The University of Chicago; Non-Presenting Author: Jason M Cowell, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay; Non-Presenting Author: Jean Decety, The University of Chicago

• Emotional responses to inequality among preschool dyads - Presenting Author: Emily Kim, Rutgers University; Non-Presenting Author: Vanessa LoBue, Rutgers University

• The effects of unfairness on children’s cognition - Presenting Author: Teresa Harvey, Boston University; Non-Presenting Author: Peter R Blake, Boston University