CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Institute of Brain Science and Department of Psychology, Jing Hengyi School of Education, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China; Zhejiang Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory for Research in Early Development and Childcare, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou 311121, China.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2024 Nov;247:106047. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106047. Epub 2024 Aug 24.
The developmental patterns and computational mechanisms underlying the impact of unfair offers and social comparisons on school-aged children's fairness-related decision making remain unclear. To address this, we recruited 190 children aged 8 to 12 years (52.1% female) in a multi-responder ultimatum game. Results revealed an age-related decline in children's tendency to reject unfair offers, partially mediated by emotions, alongside a slight increase in rejecting inferior social comparisons. Computational modeling identified two distinct motivations guiding children's rejection behavior: inequity aversion and inferior social comparison avoidance. Furthermore, there was significant variability in responses to superior social comparisons, with some children displaying aversion and others seeking. Our refined model enhances the explanatory power of inequity aversion theory in complex multi-player social scenarios, validating and refining existing theories. In addition, the exploration of superior social comparison tendencies reveals individual heterogeneity, enriching our understanding of children's social comparisons. These findings contribute to elucidating the developmental patterns and internal mechanisms of children's socialization processes, offering implications for promoting their social adaptation and mental health.
不公平提议和社会比较对学龄儿童公平决策的影响的发展模式和计算机制尚不清楚。为了解决这个问题，我们在多响应最后通牒博弈中招募了 190 名 8 至 12 岁的儿童（52.1%为女性）。结果表明，儿童拒绝不公平提议的倾向随年龄的增长而下降，这部分受到情绪的中介影响，同时，他们对较差的社会比较的拒绝率略有上升。计算模型确定了两种不同的动机来指导儿童的拒绝行为：不公平厌恶和较差社会比较回避。此外，对优越社会比较的反应存在显著的可变性，一些儿童表现出回避，而另一些儿童则寻求。我们的改进模型增强了不公平厌恶理论在复杂多玩家社会情境中的解释力，验证和细化了现有理论。此外，对优越社会比较倾向的探索揭示了个体的异质性，丰富了我们对儿童社会比较的理解。这些发现有助于阐明儿童社会化过程的发展模式和内在机制，为促进他们的社会适应和心理健康提供了启示。
