Beyond our tribe: Developing a normative sense of group-transcendent fairness.

Abstract

Human beings naturally prefer and support ingroup members more than outgroup members, but to what extent do we morally value equal treatment to ingroups and outgroups? Across four preregistered studies, we examined the development of "group-transcendent fairness," that is, the moral endorsement of allocating resources equally to ingroup members and outgroup members. We found that when allocating common resources to ingroup and outgroup members, American adults (N = 549) thought it was morally right to allocate equally instead of giving more to their family, political, or minimal ingroup members, across high and low stakes (Study 1). This normative sense of group-transcendent fairness develops gradually: 4-to 6-yearolds tended to endorse ingroup favoritism, whereas by age 8 or 9 children endorsed intergroup fairness (Studies 2-3, N = 214). Adults from China (N = 200)-a culture that values ingroup loyalty-also endorsed intergroup fairness as morally right, suggesting this moral value is not specific to western societies where egalitarianism is emphasized (Study 4). In contrast to the normative endorsement of intergroup fairness, participants in all studies did not predict most people to be fair across contexts, suggesting group-transcendent fairness was perceived more as a prescriptive than a descriptive norm (Studies 1-4). Together, our studies reveal the robust presence of group-transcendent fairness, which is valued across group contexts and cultures, develops later than ingroup support, and is prescriptive but not descriptive by nature. The findings help illuminate the nature and development of one group-transcendent moral value that helps promote intergroup relations and societal progress. Public Significance StatementWe naturally love and support people in our own groups, but how much do we also morally value treating ingroup and outgroup members equally? We found that when allocating common resources to ingroup and outgroup members, 4-to 6-year-old children endorse giving more to their family and arbitrary ingroup members, whereas children older than age 8 and adults from the United States and China endorse equal allocations as morally right. In contrast to their moral endorsement to "group-transcendent fairness," children and adults did not predict most other people to be fair. The findings suggest that children gradually develop to morally value group-transcendent fairness, which may have implications for promoting intergroup relations and societal progress.

Expectations of intergroup empathy bias emerge by early childhood.

“…Although neither of these studies manipulated group membership directly, they do suggest that people could overcome outgroup Schadenfreude when the harm inflicted on an individual is grave. Indeed, a different study finds that whereas adults in the United States and China expect people to favor their own group when the stakes are low, they expect people to share equally when the stakes are high (F. Yang et al, 2023).…”

Reinforcement learning of altruistic punishment differs between cultures and across the lifespan

“…The norm-psychology account posits that culture-specific norms, which individuals internalize and adhere to, influence parochialism in social behaviors [ 15 ]. For instance, in individualistic-oriented cultures, where egalitarian values are socially incentivized [ 2 , 16 ], people typically mete out equal punishments to unfair ingroup and outgroup members when making decisions with deliberate consideration [ 7 , 17 ]. In contrast, collectivist-oriented cultures, such as China, place greater importance on obligations to prioritize groups’ interests and maintain ingroup harmony [ 18 – 21 ].…”