In a series of experiments in which 72 participants, 18-20 months of age, and 48 participants, 25-33 months of age, observed resource-allocation events involving a puppet distributor and two potential recipients, an ingroup and outgroup puppet, researchers found that the participants expected the distributor to allocate the items equally when there were enough resources for all the puppets, but to allocate resources to the ingroup when there were only enough resources for the ingroup puppets, suggesting that children prioritize ingroup support over fairness when resources are limited.
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Article #17-19445: "Infants expect ingroup support to override fairness when resources are limited," by Lin Bian, Stephanie Sloane, and Renée Baillargeon.
MEDIA CONTACT: Lin Bian, Stanford University, CA; tel: 217-778-3011; email: <linbian@stanford.edu>; Renée Baillargeon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL; tel: 217-333-5557, 217-384-2987; e-mail: rbaillar@illinois.edu
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences