Fairness as partiality aversion: The development of procedural justice

TY - JOUR

T1 - Fairness as partiality aversion

T2 - The development of procedural justice

AU - Shaw, Alex

AU - Olson, Kristina

PY - 2014/3

Y1 - 2014/3

N2 - Adults and children dislike inequity-people being paid unequally for equal work. However, adults will allow inequity if the inequity is determined using an impartial procedure, indicating that they value procedural justice. It is unknown whether children value procedural justice when distributing resources. We investigated whether 5- to 8-year-old children would willingly create inequity between two recipients if they could do so using an impartial procedure. In Experiment 1, children preferred to use an impartial procedure (spinning a wheel that gave both recipients an equal chance to get a resource) over a partial procedure (spinning a wheel that gave one recipient a much better chance to get the resource). In Experiments 2 and 3, children preferred to use the same impartial procedure to assign a resource to one of two recipients, even over an option of keeping things equal by throwing the resource in the trash. Importantly, children preferred to throw the resource in the trash to uphold equality when the only other option was a partial procedure. Older children showed a stronger aversion to using partial procedures than younger children. These results suggest that children value procedural justice increasingly during middle childhood and that their fairness concerns may be more about avoiding partiality than inequity per se.

AB - Adults and children dislike inequity-people being paid unequally for equal work. However, adults will allow inequity if the inequity is determined using an impartial procedure, indicating that they value procedural justice. It is unknown whether children value procedural justice when distributing resources. We investigated whether 5- to 8-year-old children would willingly create inequity between two recipients if they could do so using an impartial procedure. In Experiment 1, children preferred to use an impartial procedure (spinning a wheel that gave both recipients an equal chance to get a resource) over a partial procedure (spinning a wheel that gave one recipient a much better chance to get the resource). In Experiments 2 and 3, children preferred to use the same impartial procedure to assign a resource to one of two recipients, even over an option of keeping things equal by throwing the resource in the trash. Importantly, children preferred to throw the resource in the trash to uphold equality when the only other option was a partial procedure. Older children showed a stronger aversion to using partial procedures than younger children. These results suggest that children value procedural justice increasingly during middle childhood and that their fairness concerns may be more about avoiding partiality than inequity per se.

KW - Distributive justice

KW - Fairness

KW - Impartiality

KW - Inequity aversion

KW - Procedural justice

KW - Social Cognitive Development

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84888401283&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84888401283&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.10.007

DO - 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.10.007

M3 - Article

C2 - 24291349

SN - 0022-0965

VL - 119

SP - 40

EP - 53

JO - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

JF - Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

ER -