Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

How can social learning influence children’s inclinationstoward equality-based or merit-based fairness? To investigatethis question, six- and seven-year-olds were first presentedwith a pre-test distribution task in which they divided eightstickers between two hypothetical children, one of whom wasa more productive worker. Participants were then given brief,direct testimony that advocated either equality- or merit-basedfairness (whichever was not preferred at pre-test), and thatappealed either to emotions or reason. A novel experimenterthen presented participants with a post-test distribution task.The results indicated that a majority of children changed theirdistribution patterns from pre-test to post-test after beingprovided with direct testimony. These changes in resourcedistribution were accompanied by marked changes in thekinds of explanations that children provided. This researchindicates that children’s preferences for different forms of justresource distribution can be heavily influenced by socialcommunication.