The Distributional Fairness Of Children Aged 7-9 And Its Relationship With The Theory Of Mind

Distributive justice behavior refers to the fair distribution behavior made by individuals in specific task situations.A large number of studies examined the impact of the level of situational involvement and social relation on children's distributive justice behavior.But these studies mainly examined the impact of situational involvement or social relation on children's distributive justice behavior only from a unilateral view.In addition,researchers found that children's distributive justice behavior was related to theory of mind.Previous studies mostly focused on the relationship between cognitive components of theory of mind and children's distributive justice behavior.Recently,the new dual-processing theory holds that the distributive justice behavior of individual is affected by both cognitive and affective process.Therefore,with the help of two game paradigms and Faux Pas Recognition(both cognitive and affective theory of mind can be measured simultaneously),this study comprehensively investigated the distributive justice behavior of 93 children aged 7-9 years under different levels of situational involvement and social relation,as well as its relationship with the cognitive and affective theory of mindA mixed experimental design of 3(age:7,8,9 years old)x 2(game type:dictator game,ultimatum game)x 2(situational involvement level:involved,uninvolved)x 2(social relation:friend,stranger)was used in study 1 to explore the effects of age,game type,situational involvement level and social relation on the distributive justice behavior of children aged 7-9.The results showed that:(1)In the dictator game and ultimatum game,there were no significant differences on age in the amount of resources allocated by children under the four conditions;(2)The level of situational involvement affected the amount of resources allocated by children in the dictator game,but it was not in the ultimatum game,the amount of resources allocated in the uninvolved situation was more than that in the involved situation;(3)Social relations affected the amount of resources allocated by children in the dictator game,but it was not in the ultimatum game,it showed that children allocated more resources to strangers than good friends;(4)Game types affected the amount of resources allocated by children,and more resources were allocated to recipients in ultimatum game than in dictator game.Faux Pas Recognition were used in study 2 to explore the developmental characteristics of children's ability of cognitive and affective theory of mind and its relationship with distributive justice behavior.Results showed that:(1)The scores of cognitive and affective theory of mind in 9-year-old group and 8-year-old group were significantly higher than those in 7-year-old group,and there was no significant difference between 8-year-old group and 9-year-old group;(2)The scores of affective theory of mind in children were significantly higher than those of cognitive theory of mind.(3)In the two kinds of game,only in the involved situation of dictator game,where children allocated resources with their good friends,there was a significant positive correlation between the amount of resources allocation and their ability of cognitive and affective theory of mind,while the correlation was not significant under other conditions.In summary,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)Children aged 7-9 show preference for equal distribution in dictator games and ultimatum games;(2)The level of situational involvement and social relation affect children's distributive justice behavior in dictator game,but don't affect children's distributive justice behavior in ultimatum game;(3)7-8 years old is the key period of the development of children's cognitive and affective theory of mind;(4)Children's distributive justice behavior have a lower correlation with their cognitive and affective theory of mind ability.