Fairness and the Development of Inequality Acceptance

Abstract

Fairness or Equality? Inequality in payments may be seen as inherently unfair, or as appropriate when it reflects differential achievement. Using an economic exchange game, Almås et al. (p. 1176 ) mapped how judgments changed from 5th-grade students to 13th graders: Fifth graders expressed a preference for equal division of rewards, whereas the 13th graders tolerated unequal outcomes, as long as they had been provided with evidence of unequal inputs. That is, the younger children were strict egalitarians, but the older ones—perhaps as a consequence of exposure to a variety of achievement-based social activities, such as sports—tended toward meritocracy.