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Procedural justice in children: Preschoolers accept unequal resource distributions if the procedure provides equal opportunities.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Grocke, P; Rossano, F; Tomasello, M
Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology
December 2015

When it is not possible to distribute resources equitably to everyone, people look for an equitable or just procedure. In the current study, we investigated young children's sense of procedural justice. We tested 32 triads of 5-year-olds in a new resource allocation game. Triads were confronted with three unequal reward packages and then agreed on a procedure to allocate them among themselves. To allocate the rewards, they needed to use a "wheel of fortune." Half of the groups played with a fair wheel (where each child had an equal chance of obtaining each reward package), and the other half played with an unfair wheel. We analyzed children's interactions when using the wheel and conducted an interview with each child after the game was over. Children using the unfair wheel often decided to change the rules of the game, and they also rated it as an unfair procedure in the interview. In contrast, children who played with the fair wheel were mostly accepting of both the outcome and the procedure. Overall, we found that children as young as preschool age are already sensitive not only to distributive justice but to procedural justice as well.

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Published In

Journal of experimental child psychology

DOI

EISSN

1096-0457

ISSN

0022-0965

Publication Date

December 2015

Volume

140

Start / End Page

197 / 210

Related Subject Headings

  • Social Justice
  • Reward
  • Resource Allocation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Games, Experimental
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Child, Preschool
  • Child
 

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Grocke, P., Rossano, F., & Tomasello, M. (2015). Procedural justice in children: Preschoolers accept unequal resource distributions if the procedure provides equal opportunities. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 140, 197–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.07.008
Grocke, Patricia, Federico Rossano, and Michael Tomasello. “Procedural justice in children: Preschoolers accept unequal resource distributions if the procedure provides equal opportunities.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 140 (December 2015): 197–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2015.07.008.
Grocke P, Rossano F, Tomasello M. Procedural justice in children: Preschoolers accept unequal resource distributions if the procedure provides equal opportunities. Journal of experimental child psychology. 2015 Dec;140:197–210.
Grocke, Patricia, et al. “Procedural justice in children: Preschoolers accept unequal resource distributions if the procedure provides equal opportunities.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 140, Dec. 2015, pp. 197–210. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2015.07.008.
Grocke P, Rossano F, Tomasello M. Procedural justice in children: Preschoolers accept unequal resource distributions if the procedure provides equal opportunities. Journal of experimental child psychology. 2015 Dec;140:197–210.
Journal cover image

Published In

Journal of experimental child psychology

DOI

EISSN

1096-0457

ISSN

0022-0965

Publication Date

December 2015

Volume

140

Start / End Page

197 / 210

Related Subject Headings

  • Social Justice
  • Reward
  • Resource Allocation
  • Male
  • Humans
  • Games, Experimental
  • Female
  • Experimental Psychology
  • Child, Preschool
  • Child