Sense of justice in toddlers

Toddlers think righteously and act unfairly

22/03/2013

From moral values ​​such as justice, toddlers already know from the age of three years. However, American psychologists found in a study that children at this age are not yet able to put the sense of justice into practice. Only schoolchildren from the age of six can forego their own advantage in terms of justice and fairness.

Even small children can cognitively grasp what „fair behavior“ or justice is. However, that does not mean that they share chocolate, for example. „Only at a certain age are children able to use fair behavior“, as the researchers of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor (USA) in the journal „Plos One“ to report. Three year olds already know the rules for „fair sharing“. However, the children use the Faires parts, but initially continue to consider their own advantage. „Only from the age of seven are most children able to implement justice rules“, summing up the psychological scientists.

Toddlers are more concerned about their own benefit
Craig Smith and his team studied the behaviors of a total of 102 children. The subjects were between three and eight years old. At the beginning of the study, the children were given stickers in their favorite color. In the first round, the little ones were asked how to divide the stickers to share with another child. The amazing thing: All the kids liked the idea if the stickers were just like „same size“ would be shared. It did not matter whether they belonged to the donor or recipient side. However, it later became clear that only children from the age of seven were able to comply with the rules. Most children under the age of six were more likely to be self-reliant. The gender or socio-cultural backgrounds played no role.

In order to secure the results, the children were asked in the second round not what they should share, but what they really would give. The older children from the age of six stated, „to share honestly“ and did so, while the little ones stated that they prefer to keep more of the colorful stickers themselves. The six-year-olds then kept the stickers as well.

Include study results in the education
„The results show that children know the rules for sharing at an early age and also want their opponents to comply with them“, explains child psychologist Smith. „However, children from the age of seven can grasp the value of sharing and then give up their own advantage“. Gritli Bertram, social pedagogue from Hanover, rates the study results as „perceptively“. Finally, the analysis shows that toddlers under the age of six can not put justice into action. „The education of children should take this aspect into account“. (Sb)

Read also about justice sense:
Infants with a high sense of justice

Picture credits: Karl-Heinz Laube