University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

On the early development of disadvantageous inequity aversion

Sanchez Hernandez, Fernando

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129616

Description

Title
On the early development of disadvantageous inequity aversion
Author(s)
Sanchez Hernandez, Fernando
Issue Date
2025-05-02
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Hyde, Daniel
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Hyde, Daniel
Committee Member(s)
  • Baillargeon, Renée
  • Fisher, Cynthia
  • Rizzo, Michael
  • Straka, Brenda
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • disadvantageous inequity aversion
  • development
  • number knowledge
  • fairness
  • toddlers
Abstract
First person distributive fairness is thought to be a balance between self and, sometimes conflicting, other regarding concerns. Whereas concern for other’s outcomes – that is, Advantageous Inequity Aversion (AIA), has been shown to be a late emerging response to unfairness linked to reciprocity, reputation, and cultural norms of fairness, the concern for one own’s outcomes – that is, Disadvantageous Inequity Aversion (DIA), has been documented in children as young as 4-years of age in the Inequity game and it has been proposed to be linked to competition, spite, and an early emerging sense of fairness with a focus on the self. However, little work has examined whether implicit and explicit DIA is already present in children younger than 4, much less explored the cognitive mechanisms associated with its early development. Here, we examined whether DIA is present before 4-years of age (i.e., 2-year-olds) using an apparatus especially sensitive to implicit responses (Chapter 2), validated a methodology that weights implicit and explicit responses equally while showing that implicit and explicit DIA is already present by the second year of life (Chapter 3), and examined whether understanding the cardinal principle of counting or cardinal number word knowledge more generally is linked early in development to DIA finding support for the second hypothesis (Chapter 4). Together, these results provide novel insights into the emergence of DIA, highlighting the foundational nature of DIA in children’s responses to inequality. These findings have profound implications for theories of fairness and early economic decision-making more broadly.
Graduation Semester
2025-05
Type of Resource
Thesis
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129616
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2025 Fernando Sanchez Hernandez

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