Young children's reasoning about equality and ownership in resource conflicts

This study examined how young children reasoned about two important factors-equality and ownership-when they were in conflict with one another in a resource distribution context. The sample included N = 110 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse 5- to 7-year-olds (M-Age = 6;4, SD = 9 months). Children reasoned about how to distribute resources (gummy bears) between two peers who differed in their outcomes (pictures colored) and their opportunities (crayons to color with). Many children found it unacceptable to distribute resources based on outcome when the opportunity to earn them was unequal, particularly if they explicitly reasoned about unequal opportunities. Once recipients had taken possession of their gummy bears, however, children who reasoned about ownership concluded that it was unacceptable to redistribute the treats in order to adjust for unequal opportunity while children who reasoned about equality found this action acceptable. These results highlight young children's emerging ability to balance competing moral concerns and resolve resource conflicts.