Collaboration promotes proportional reasoning about resource distribution in young children.

Abstract

We investigated how children and adults evaluate the “niceness” of individuals who engage in resource distribution, with a focus on their sensitivity to the proportion of resources given. Across three experiments, subjects evaluated the niceness of a child who gave a quantity of pennies to another child. In Study 1 (N = 30), adults showed sensitivity to the proportion given whereas 5- and 7-year-old children did not. In Study 2 (N = 74), both younger (3- to 5-year-old) and older (6- to 8-year-old) children were sensitive to proportion only when resources were earned by a giver in collaboration with the recipient rather than by the giver alone. Adults, however, were sensitive to proportion in both cases. In Study 3 (N = 44), we tested 5- and 6-year-olds and their parents to be sure that socio-economic and ethnic differences between samples did not drive results and replicated key findings from Studies 1 and 2. Together, these findings indicate that children favor proportional resource distribution in situations that invoke intuitions about equity. We suggest that these intuitions may form the basis for adult notions of fairness and generosity.

How 18- and 24-month-old peers divide resources among themselves

“…The finding here was that children divided the resources equally more than 60% of the time when they produced them collaboratively, which was more than when they produced parts of the pile independently. In line with previous studies (Ng, Heymann, & Barner, 2011;Warneken et al, 2011), and also replicating the general results of Hamann and colleagues (2011) but with younger children, collaboration facilitated equal sharing. But different from this previous study, children in the current study were dividing up pooled resources, with no one needing to sacrifice anything already in their possession.…”

Allocation of resources to collaborators and free-riders in 3-year-olds

“…For example, would children still share less with a partner who was forced to leave during the task? These findings add to a growing body of research suggesting that collaborative contexts represent a more natural situation for equality and even equity considerations to emerge (Hamann et al, 2011;Ng, Heyman, & Barner, 2011;Warneken et al, 2011).…”

“Wealth Makes Many Friends”: Children Expect More Giving From Resource‐Rich Than Resource‐Poor Individuals

“…They preferentially allocate resources to individuals with less over individuals with more (Li et al, 2014;Malti et al, 2016;Paulus, 2014;Zinser & Lydiatt, 1976). When judging "niceness," they attend to the absolute amount given, viewing larger donations as "nicer," and also show sensitivity to the proportion given relative to the total quantity possessed by the giver, at least when not in conflict with the absolute amount given (McCrink et al, 2010; see also Ng, Heyman, & Barner, 2011). They also may view those with more as having a greater duty or ability to share than those with less.…”