An Jing, Yu Jing, Zhu Liqi
CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Psychol. 2020 Nov 27;11:571570. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.571570. eCollection 2020.
Previous studies have explored children's intergroup resource allocation in the context of preexisting intergroup resource inequality. However, resource inequality between social groups often originates from different factors. This study explored the role of the origins of resource inequality on children's intergroup resource allocations. In experiment 1, when there was no explicit origin of the intergroup inequality, children of different ages mainly allocated resources in an equal way and 5- to 6-year-olds showed ingroup bias. In experiment 2, we examined the influence of different origins of intergroup inequality and found that 5- to 6-year-olds perpetuated intergroup inequality when resource inequality was based on either a structural (regional disparity) or an internal factor (difference in performance). However, 10- to 11-year-olds rectified inequality or allocated equally when intergroup inequality was based on regional disparity and perpetuated resource inequality when intergroup inequality was based on performance difference. The origins of inequality appear to play an important role in children's intergroup resource allocations, and older children can distinguish different origins of intergroup inequality in resource allocation.
以往的研究在既存的群体间资源不平等背景下探讨了儿童的群体间资源分配情况。然而，社会群体之间的资源不平等往往源于不同因素。本研究探讨了资源不平等的根源对儿童群体间资源分配的作用。在实验1中，当群体间不平等没有明确根源时，不同年龄段的儿童主要以平等的方式分配资源，5至6岁的儿童表现出内群体偏好。在实验2中，我们考察了群体间不平等的不同根源的影响，发现当资源不平等基于结构因素（地区差异）或内部因素（表现差异）时，5至6岁的儿童会延续群体间不平等。然而，当群体间不平等基于地区差异时，10至11岁的儿童会纠正不平等或平等分配，而当群体间不平等基于表现差异时，他们会延续资源不平等。不平等的根源似乎在儿童的群体间资源分配中起着重要作用，年龄较大的儿童在资源分配中能够区分群体间不平等的不同根源。
