ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2017, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (12): 1504-1512.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2017.01504

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 4~8岁儿童公平认知与行为差距: 社会比较的作用

 刘 文1,2;  张 雪1;  张 玉1,3;  俞睿玮1,4   

  1.  (1辽宁师范大学心理学院, 2辽宁省儿童青少年健康人格评定与培养协同创新中心, 大连 116029) (3深圳市桃源居中澳实验学校生命健康管理中心, 深圳 518126) (4湖州师范学院教师教育学院, 湖州 313000)
  • 收稿日期:2016-11-28 发布日期:2017-10-25 出版日期:2017-12-25
  • 通讯作者: 刘文, E-mail: wenliu703@126.com
  • 基金资助:
     教育部人文社会科学研究规划基金一般项目:儿童公平发展特征及干预研究(15YJA190004)及国家哲学社会科学基金重大项目:公平感对人类决策影响的社会神经科学研究(14ZDB161)。

 Fairness cognition-behavior gap in 4~8 year-old children: The role of social comparison

 LIU Wen1,2; ZHANG Xue1; ZHANG Yu1,3; YU Ruiwei1,4   

  1.  (1 College of Psychology, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China) (2 Liaoning Collaborative Innovation Center of Children and Adolescents Healthy Personality Assessment and Cultivation, Dalian 116029, China) (3 Healthcare Centre, Shenzhen Arcadia Grammar School, Shenzhen 518126, China) (4 Educational School, Huzhou Teacher College, Huzhou 313000, China)
  • Received:2016-11-28 Online:2017-10-25 Published:2017-12-25
  • Contact: LIU Wen, E-mail: wenliu703@126.com
  • Supported by:
     

摘要:  公平是人们社会交往中采用的一种综合考虑自我和他人利益的策略, 幼儿依据何种标准进行资源分配包括两个层面:一是理解, 体现为公平认知; 二是应用, 体现为公平行为, 儿童对公平的理解和应用会有一个发展过程。实验1, 采用独裁者博弈范式考察4~8岁儿童公平认知与实际分配行为差距。结果显示:4~8岁儿童均已具有公平认知, 公平行为随着年龄增长而增加, 二者之间的差距逐渐减小, 直到8岁儿童公平行为与公平认知趋于一致。实验2, 探索社会比较、不公平程度和有无代价对儿童分配行为的影响。结果表明三者对儿童分配行为均存在显著的影响, 儿童宁可付出代价也倾向于避免自身处于不利地位, 和确保自己相对有利。结论:儿童公平认知与行为存在显著差距, 儿童公平决策的发展包含了克服使别人得到比自己少的强有力的社会比较过程, 社会比较对分配行为存在重要的作用。

关键词:  儿童, 公平认知, 公平行为, 社会比较

Abstract:  Fairness is a comprehensive strategy that takes into consideration of self-interest and other people's interests. The development of fairness norms, that is, using certain rules to distribute resources among different agents, includes two levels: the cognitive level, understanding fairness norms, and the behavioral level, applying fairness rules. Young children endorse fairness norms related to resource distribution, but often act in contradiction to those norms when given a chance to distribute. While currently most research focuses on children's fairness cognition or behavior, the phenomenon of children’s fairness cognition-behavior gap and its influence factors have rarely been explored in the context of a single study. Using a novel approach, the present study aims to investigate the gap of fairness cognition and behavior among 4- to 8- year-old children. The research presented here offers clear evidence of this discrepancy and goes on to examine possible explanations for its diminution with age, as well as the impact of social comparison on such resource distribution behavior. Study 1 adopted the Dictator game to examine the equity principle among 105 4~8-year-old children’s fairness cognition and behavior, and compared the cognition-behavior gap. The justifications/motivations of children’s distribution behavior were also coded and analyzed. In Study 2, We replicated the findings in Study 1, that children will take a cost to avoid being at a relative disadvantage, but also found that 5-to 6-year-olds would spitefully take a cost to ensure that another welfare falls below their own. We tested 80 6-year-old children, and analyzed the influence of social comparison on children’s distribution behavior, both upward and downward social comparisons considered. A variant of the Dictator Game, were used to investigate children’s behavior in different conditions. In Study 1, we found that children at this age already have developed fairness understanding, their fair distributive behavior increased with age, and the gap between cognition and behavior decreased with age. Nevertheless, they failed to engage in equal distribution until age 8. Children’s interpretations of their behavior showed a significant age-related difference from 4 to 8. As children grew older, their interpretations transitioned from focusing on desire to principle. Study 2 found that the degree of unfairness and the cost had a significant impact on the choice of distribution behavior in both the upward social comparison and downward social comparison. Under the no-cost situation, children were more inclined to avoid their own disadvantage and to favor their own favorable results. In the highly unfair situation, it was necessary to avoid being inferior to others, even if the cost was too high. The present study of children’ fairness cognition-behavior gap in a single environment contributes to the literature on moral development. The results provide some support for traditional accounts of moral development by showing that, in the course of development, children’s distribution behavior is increasingly consistent with the norm of fairness that they endorse from an early age. These results also suggest that social comparison influences children’s distribution behavior, and that the development of fairness includes overcoming an initial social comparison preference for self-advantage/disadvantaging others.

Key words: children, fairness cognition, fairness behavior, social comparison

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