THE EFFECT OF INEQUITY UPON DISTRIBUTING BEHAVIOR OF CHILDREN

Abstract

Young children tend to behave egoistic as a result of egocentrism. Some studies indicate when a child was told to divide tokens between himself and his partner, the number of which is odd, the younger the child was, the more likely he got more to himself. This study is planned to explore the effects of equitabel and inequitable situations upon young children's (5-yr-old) tendencies to share with others. Inequity results in tension which promote the individual to attempt to restore equity. Children (Ss) played a question game with a partner (P, same sex, same age) in which they received rewardtokens that were worth valuable prizes. In the low group the S received less rewards than P. In the equal group each received the same number of rewards. In the high group S received more rewards than P. When the first game is over, the number of reward-tokens is counted by the experimenter. Then S and P play the second game (block-building). Here S is offered the opportunity to share a preset number of rewards with P after each trial. There are eight trials. From the theory of inequity, it is expected that S in the low group distributes to himself more than the partner, S in high group less, S in equal group same. Predictions from inequity theory obtained partial support. Children in low group rewarded themselves generously to restore the equity, but it was not enough to cover the inequity. Most children in equal group divide the tokens equally to retain the equity. Some children in the high group rewarded themselves less than the partner expected from the prediction. The others rewarded as many as the partner and retained the superiority given by the experimenter at the first game.