Impact of Resource Value and Visual Perspective Taking on Distributional Equity Among Children Aged 3–5

One way that children pursue fairness is through allocation equity. No studies to date have examined how children will allocate the resources they like and dislike when the contributions of the recipients are not equal. We examined whether resource value and visual perspective taking (VPT) affect children’s allocation equity in the involved situation. In Study 1, Chinese preschoolers aged 3 to 5 years old (N = 35) participated in a resource allocation task in which they were asked to allocate stickers with differing subjective value to recipients who varied in the level of contribution they made in a shared task. The children did not make allocations based on contribution when the resources had subjective value. In Study 2, in a similar allocation task with a different sample of children aged 3 to 5 years old (N = 47), children did not inhibit resource preference to achieve a equitable distribution, regardless of their level of skill in VPT. unknown