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The researchers in this study found that preschool children who protested more against an agent distributing resources equally between a poor and a rich recipient, and affirmed giving more to a poor than to a rich recipient, the more they gave themselves to the poor. Overall, the results suggest that preschool children do act in accordance with their normative views.
Abstract
Recent research showed that preschool children hold normative views on how to distribute
resources fairly and enforce these fairness norms even from third parties. The current study
examined whether 3- to 6-year-old preschool children’s resource allocation behavior aligns
with their normative stances. To this end, children were presented with protagonists who
either distributed resources equally between a poor and a rich recipient, or gave more to the
poor recipient. In addition, children’s own resource distribution behavior towards a rich and
poor other were assessed. Results showed that the more children protested against the
protagonist distributing resources equally and the more they affirmed the protagonist giving
more to the poor, the more resources they themselves allocated to a poor other. These findings
point to a relation between moral evaluation and behavior in the preschool years.