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A Developmental Neuroscience Study of Moral Decision Making Regarding Resource Allocation
Author(s) -
Meidenbauer Kimberly L.,
Cowell Jason M.,
Killen Melanie,
Decety Jean
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12698
Subject(s) - psychology , prosocial behavior , negativity effect , developmental psychology , distributive justice , cognitive psychology , equity (law) , predictive coding , social cognition , moral development , cognition , social psychology , coding (social sciences) , economic justice , neuroscience , statistics , neoclassical economics , mathematics , economics , political science , law
Distinguishing between equity and equality is essential when making social and moral decisions, yet the related neurodevelopmental processes are unknown. Evaluations of contextually based third‐party distributions incorporating recipient need and resource importance were examined in children and adolescents ( N = 82; 8–16 years). Spatiotemporal neurodynamic responses show distinct developmental profiles to viewing such distributions. Event‐related potentials (ERPs) differentially predicted real‐life behaviors based on age, where older children's (8–10 years) evaluations were related to a fairly rapid, automatic ERP component (early posterior negativity), whereas adolescent and preadolescent (11–16 years) evaluations, first‐person allocations, and prosocial behaviors were predicted by later, cognitively controlled ERP components (P3 and late positive potential). Together, these results reveal age‐related changes regarding the neural responses that correspond to distributive justice decisions.