Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Fairness, or the ability to distribute resources in a manner thataccords with societally recognized principles of justice, is ahallmark of human cooperation. Young children rapidlydevelop the ability to enact fairness, but the cognitiveunderpinnings of this ability remain unknown. The presentstudy investigated 4-7-year-olds’ acquisition of threeprinciples of fairness -- equality (the principle that all partiesshould have the same), merit (the principle that those whowork harder should get more), and starting opportunity (theprinciple that those who started with less should get more) --in relation to their emerging cognitive control and memory fornumerical information (numerical accuracy). Cognitivecontrol predicted children’s equal sharing, whereas numericalaccuracy predicted merit-based sharing. Children up throughthe oldest age we tested ignored starting opportunities. Theresults suggest that different principles of fairness may beunderpinned by distinct cognitive processes.