Development of Children’s Fairness Judgments and Reasoning on Distribution of Positive and Negative Resources

• In Event: Young children's moral judgements and prosocial behaviors

Abstract

Background:
Most research on distributive justice is concerned with allocation of resources with positive values such as rewards. While distributive justice is concerned not only with the allocation of resources with positive values that are desirable to people, but also with the allocation of negative resources that people cannot avoid (Deutsch, 1985), fewer studies have examined children’s fair views on the allocation of negative resources such as burdens.
With regard to fair distributions of negative resources, the authors have investigated children’s fairness judgments on distribution of clean-up work in their classrooms (the responsibility of cleaning up the materials they used) (e.g., Hashimoto, Ikemori, & Toda, 2012). Hashimoto and Toda (2017) further examined children’s allocation patterns across two kinds of distribution (rewards and responsibilities). The results revealed that more 5-year-olds showed generous allocation patterns in both distributions than did the 4-year-olds, but the differences for age were not statistically significant.
Aim:
The aim of this study was to examine the developmental trends of elementary school children’s fairness judgments and reasoning on distribution of rewards and responsibilities.
Method:
The participants were attending a university-affiliated elementary school in western Japan: Ninety-nine second graders, 102 fourth graders and 97 sixth graders. A survey was conducted in class and participants were asked to respond to the following two scenarios in first-person contexts. (1) Reward distribution: Either the participant or one classmate was more productive than the other in making decorations. (2) Responsibility distribution: Either the participant or one classmate played with toys. Participants were then asked how rewards/clean-up job after playing should be distributed. Four allocation types (Equity, Equality, Selfish and Generous) that can be applied to both distribution contexts were used for analysis (Hashimoto & Toda, 2017, Table1). The participants were also asked to write their reasons for each of their judgments.
Results:
The authors have reported the quantitative analysis as follows (Hashimoto, Nameda and Toda, 2019). For reward distribution, the number of children who showed Equity pattern was higher in older children, but the Equality patterns were found less in older children. Only small age differences were found for Generous patterns. For responsibility distribution, similar trends, as for reward distribution, were found for Equity pattern and for Equality pattern. However, the number of children who showed Generous pattern was higher in older children.
For this presentation, children’s reasoning for their distributive judgments will be qualitatively analyzed. The results will show whether children endorse different principles when distributing different resources. While other studies generally address the first response, we will examine all the reasons children mentioned, including the reasons they considered but did not result in their decisions. This analysis will show how children weigh multiple principles or considerations in the process of making fair judgements. Because only a few studies have examined children’s moral reasoning for distributing resources, the results will reveal the complexity and developmental differences of school children’s decision making processes.

Authors

• Yuko Hashimoto, Kwansei Gakuin University
  Presenting Author

• Akinobu Nameda, Shizuoka University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yuichi Toda, Osaka Kyoiku University
  Non-Presenting Author