Infants with a high sense of justice

The sense of justice of children begins at the age of 15 months

09/10/2011

Even toddlers have a sense of distributive justice and fairness. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the University of Washington at Seattle, USA, have shown in a study of children aged 15 months that they already have a pronounced sense of justice about the distribution of biscuits and milk feature.

The more pronounced the children's sense of justice was, the more inclined they were to altruistic (selfless) action and were ready to share their favorite toy, the scientists report in the journal „PloS ONE“. In their study, researchers hope for new approaches to explaining human co-operation „important driving force behind the evolutionary success of ours“ To open species.

Study on the sense of justice
Jessica A. Sommerville of the University of Washington and Marco F. H. Schmidt of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have investigated the sense of justice and altruistic behavior in 47 infants aged 15 months in the current study. Because the toddlers can not express their feelings with words, the researchers used certain behaviors to draw conclusions about the feelings of the little ones. Babies tend to fix things that are unknown to them or that do not meet their expectations for a long time with their eyes. This phenomenon allowed the researchers to react to the children's reaction „Expectation fulfilled“ and „Violation of expectation“ to distinguish. The scientists showed the babies video sequences in which a person divides a portion biscuits between two further persons. Sitting on the lap of their parents, the children got two videos with different biscuit distribution. Once the treats are divided fairly between the two other people, the other time, one person receives significantly more than the second. While playing the videos, the researchers closely watched how long the babies fixed the scenes with their eyes. In another test, the procedure was repeated with videos showing the distribution of milk between two persons.

Connection between selfless action and sense of justice
Following the video tests, the researchers compared the results with the willingness of toddlers to hand over or share their favorite toy. Jessica A. Sommerville and colleagues found that children who were more willing to share their favorite toys, for the most part (92 percent) longer fixed the video with the unfair milk or biscuit distribution. According to the researcher, the little ones were waiting „a fair distribution of food and were surprised to see that one person received more biscuits or milk than the other“. For the children, who act rather selfishly or did not want to give away their favorite toy, the opposite was observed. They fixed with their eyes to 86 percent the fair food and beverage distribution longer. Like the researchers in the journal „PloS ONE“ Write yours „Results are the first evidence that the roots of a fundamental sense of fairness and altruism can be found in childhood, and that they develop in a parallel and interwoven manner.“

The standards of fairness and selflessness are therefore acquired much earlier than previously assumed. Researchers in the 15-month-old infant were able to detect a sense of justice that had previously been detected in children between the ages of six and seven, said study leader Jessica A. Sommerville, emphasizing the importance of her investigations. Astonishing was also the clear connection between the willingness to help others or to share his favorite toy and the sense of fairness, the experts said. According to Jessica A. Sommerville, there is a clear connection between the sense of justice and the propensity for selfless action.

How toddlers acquire a sense of justice, fairness, and altruism at such an early stage of their lives, or that this may be inherently dictated by nature, has yet to be clarified by researchers in their studies. But it is the assumption close, „that toddlers absorb these norms in a non-verbal way, observing how people in their environment interact with each other“, This is the statement of the study director Jessica A. Sommerville. In further studies, the researchers now want to investigate to what extent the attitude and behavior of the parents influences the reactions of the children. (Fp)

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Image: Hans Baulig