Children's Reactions to Inequality: Associations With Empathy and Parental Teaching

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

While children generally prefer equal distributions of resources (Baumard, et al., 2012; Shaw & Olson, 2013), little is known about the contextual and individual variability in these preferences (Elenbaas, 2019). The present work examines the role of empathy and parental teaching of belief in a just world (BJW) in children's perceptions of, and reactions to, unequal distributions. The present study is the first to examine contributions of both individual and contextual factors on children’s perceptions and reactions to inequality.

Children (aged 5 – 8 years, N = 96, 55% female) watched a video featuring two puppets whose goal was to each build a necklace using beads, where one puppet (disadvantaged) was consistently given fewer beads than the other (advantaged). Contextual factors manipulated between participants included number of distributors (whether one or multiple people distributed the beads in the video) and perspective (whether the child took the perspective of the advantaged or disadvantaged puppet). Dependent variables included 1) children’s fairness ratings of the distribution scenes, 2) children’s sticker distribution to puppets after the video (specifically to the disadvantaged puppet), and 3) children’s choice of puppet to hold after the video. Parents completed questionnaires to assess their teaching of BJW values to their child (modified scales from Lipkus et al., 1996) and their child’s cognitive and affective empathy (Dadds et al., 2008).

Hierarchical regressions investigated how individual differences (age, gender, cognitive and affective empathy, taught BJW) and contextual differences (distributor and perspective conditions) predicted the three dependent variables (fairness ratings, stickers distributed to disadvantaged puppet, chosen puppet). For fairness ratings, age was the only significant predictor, with older children rating the unequal distributions as more unfair. For stickers distributed to the disadvantaged puppet, age was again a significant predictor, with older children distributing more stickers to the disadvantaged puppet (vs the advantaged puppet). Further, significant interaction effects were found between cognitive empathy and distributor condition, such that children with higher cognitive empathy gave more stickers to the disadvantaged puppet when in the multiple distributor condition. Significant interaction effects were also found between taught BJW and perspective condition, such that children with lower taught BJW gave more stickers to the disadvantaged puppet after taking that puppet’s perspective. For chosen puppet, a significant interaction effect was found between perspective condition and affective empathy, with children in the disadvantaged perspective condition being more likely to choose the disadvantaged puppet regardless of their levels of affective empathy. However, among those in the advantaged perspective condition, only children high in affective empathy were likely to choose the disadvantaged puppet.

These findings bear significantly on educational interventions aimed at promoting values of equality within children, suggesting that the emphasis of interventions be on behavioural responses to inequality as opposed to perceptions of fairness. They also underscore the importance of encouraging children to take the perspective of disadvantaged groups when promoting behaviours that strive to rectify inequalities, particularly for children who may not be affectively inclined to do so.

Authors

• Nicole S Gevaux, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Siann F Gault, Wilfrid Laurier University
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Nilsen, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ramona Bobocel, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author