The Effect Of Peer Relationship On Distributive Justice In Children Aged 4-6

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of peer relationship on distributive justice in children aged 4-6 years.At the same time,by changing the initial value of contribution value,the influence of peer relationship on distributive justice of children aged 4-6 was explored under the condition of different contribution value.Methods:The study was divided into three experiments,all using 3(Peer relationship:favorite person vs.Dislikes vs.Stranger A)×2(number of cartoon erasers:3 vs.4)mixed experimental design,with peer relationship as the intra subject variable and number of cartoon erasers as the intersubject variable.The dependent variable was the number of cartoon erasers received by the recipient(the number of cartoon erasers distributed by the subject).Results:Experiment 1 found that in positive peer relationship,children would maximize the interests of the people they like.In negative peer relationships,children will allocate less benefits to people they don’t like;In the base condition(stranger),a fair distribution is made based on the same contribution value.In Experiment 2a,the children redistributed more benefits to the loved ones.Equal distribution under negative peer relationship and baseline conditions,not fair distribution according to contribution value.Experiment 2b found that under positive peer relationship and baseline conditions,children distributed fairly based on contribution value.In negative peer relationships,even if the disliked person contributed more,children would still prevent the disliked person from getting more benefits.Conclusion:Different degree of peer relationship and contribution value can affect the equitable distribution of 4-6year old children.The specific conclusions are as follows:1.Positive peer relationship will affect the equitable distribution of children,and positive peer relationship is more dominant than contribution value in the distribution.Under the positive peer relationship,no matter whether the contribution value of children’s favorites is large or small,4-6 year old children will maximize the interests of their favorites in the distribution.2.Negative peer relationship will affect children’s equitable distribution,and negative avoidance relationship is more dominant than contribution value in distribution.In negative peer relationships,regardless of whether the contribution of the disliked person was large or small,the children aged 4 to 6 would avoid benefiting the disliked person in the assignment.3.Children aged 4-6 can apply the principle of equality and contribution to make fair distribution.In the case of the same contribution value,children will adopt the principle of equality for fair distribution;However,when there is a difference in the contribution value,children will adopt the contribution principle for fair distribution.