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Group bias in children’s rectification of inequality using resources of different values
Author(s) -
Xiao Xue,
Liu Lu,
Wu Yuting,
Liu Lisha,
Xu Liangyuan,
Li Yanfang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
social development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.078
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1467-9507
pISSN - 0961-205X
DOI - 10.1111/sode.12497
Subject(s) - disadvantaged , inequality , psychology , context (archaeology) , rectification , in group favoritism , distribution (mathematics) , social psychology , developmental psychology , social group , economics , economic growth , mathematics , mathematical analysis , paleontology , social identity theory , biology , power (physics) , physics , quantum mechanics
Previous research has found that children can engage in rectification of pre‐existing inequality by allocating more resources to individuals and groups of disadvantaged status, but less research has investigated how children address the inequalities using resources of different values, especially when they are linked to group membership (i.e., in‐group or out‐group member) in the first‐party (Study 1) and third‐party contexts (Study 2). To address these issues, children aged 5–6 years and 7–8 years were assigned four distribution tasks in each study, in which they were asked to allocate resources of different values to disadvantaged or advantaged persons who were either in‐group or out‐group members and then, reason about their decisions. We found that children used resources of different values to rectify inequalities in the intergroup context overall. Specifically, younger children demonstrated group bias in their rectification of inequalities in both first‐ and third‐party contexts whereas older children overcame group bias and were more concerned about inequality status during allocation. Thus, with age, children were better able to deal with the conflict between inequality status and group bias using resources of different values.