Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0109, USA.
Dev Psychol. 2011 Sep;47(5):1230-8. doi: 10.1037/a0024923.
The authors 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 3 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), the authors tested 5- and 6-year-olds and their parents to be sure that socioeconomic 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. The authors suggest that these intuitions may form the basis for adult notions of fairness and generosity.
作者研究了儿童和成人如何评价参与资源分配的个体的“友善程度”，重点关注他们对所分配资源比例的敏感性。在 3 项实验中，被试者评价了一个孩子向另一个孩子分发一定数量便士的友善程度。在研究 1（N=30）中，成年人表现出对所分配比例的敏感性，而 5 至 7 岁的儿童则没有。在研究 2（N=74）中，只有当资源是由给予者与接受者合作获得，而不是由给予者单独获得时，年幼（3 至 5 岁）和年长（6 至 8 岁）的儿童才会对比例敏感。然而，成年人在这两种情况下都对比例敏感。在研究 3（N=44）中，作者测试了 5 至 6 岁的儿童及其父母，以确保样本之间的社会经济和种族差异不会影响结果，并复制了研究 1 和 2 的关键发现。这些发现表明，在引发公平意识的情况下，儿童倾向于按比例分配资源。作者认为，这些直觉可能是成人公平和慷慨观念的基础。
