Publications [#349841] of Michael Tomasello

Journal Articles

1. Grocke, P; Rossano, F; Tomasello, M (2019). Preschoolers consider (absent) others when choosing a distribution procedure.. PloS one, 14(8), e0221186. [doi]
   (last updated on 2025/05/12)

   Abstract:
   This study investigated how the presence of others and anticipated distributions for self influence children's fairness-related decisions in two different socio-moral contexts. In the first part, three- and five-year-old children (N = 120) decided between a fair and an unfair wheel of fortune to allocate resources (procedural justice). In the second part, they directly chose between two distributions of resources (distributive justice). While making a decision, each child was either observed by the affected group members (public), alone (private), or no others were introduced (non-social control). Children choose the fair option more often when others were affected (independently of their presence) only in the procedural justice task. These results suggest that using a fair procedure to distribute resources allows young preschoolers to overcome selfish tendencies.