Young children think that teachers who count out rewards are fairer than those who don’t

In just the first few years of life, children develop a strong sense of fairness. At 16 months old, toddlers will reward someone who has fairly distributed food or toys between two other people, for example. By two, they tend to share toys equally themselves. A new study shows that children’s judgements of fairness also take into account the method by which resources have been allocated. Kids as young as four think that a teacher who has counted out cookies for a reward is fairer than one who gives that exact same reward without counting.  The research, published in Cognition, suggests that when judging fairness, young children are able to consider the motivations of the person distributing resources. Continue reading →