Economic Socialization of Children: Attitude toward the Distribution of Rewards

Summary

This study attempts to assess the conditions under which children's attitudes toward distribution favored or tended not to favor reward distribution according to the “productivity principle”—the assignment of rewards in proportion to productive contributions. These attitudes were evaluated in three different contexts: (a) vicarious decision-making); (b) decision-making for an unproduced good (a gift); and (c) productive decision-making. It was hypothesized that support for the productivity principle would increase relative to the children's actual involvement in experiencing the consequences of the productivity principle as opposed to its alternatives. The study sampled 1485 third- to sixth-grade students, half of whom were in control groups, while the other half participated in the Mini-Society program, in which they developed and participated in their own microcosmic society replete with economic, social, and political institutions. The findings suggest that children's attitudes toward equity grew increasingly favorable the more they directly bore the consequences of their decisions.