title: Preschoolers are able to take merit into account when distributing goods.
abstract: Classic studies in developmental psychology demonstrate a relatively late development of equity, with children as old as 6 or even 8-10 years failing to follow the logic of merit--that is, giving more to those who contributed more. Following Piaget (1932), these studies have been taken to indicate that judgments of justice develop slowly and follow a stagelike progression, starting off with simple rules (e.g., equality: everyone receives the same) and only later on in development evolving into more complex ones (e.g., equity: distributions match contributions). Here, we report 2 experiments with 3- and 4-year-old children (N = 195) that contradict this constructivist account. Our results demonstrate that children as young as 3 years old are able to take merit into account by distributing tokens according to individual contributions but that this ability may be hidden by a preference for equality.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford, England. nbaumard@gmail.com
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Baumard
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Mascaro
authors.forename: Coralie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chevallier
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035863:Moral Development; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D010988:Play and Playthings; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012938:Social Perception; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors