Date of Award

Spring 1-1-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dunham, Yarrow

Abstract

Psychological research suggests that from infancy, humans are highly attuned to fairness and expect resources to be fairly allocated. However, despite this early sensitivity, people ultimately learn to live with—and sometimes even justify—widespread societal inequalities. This thesis explores how children, who in principle deeply value fairness, come to tolerate economic disparities. Through four chapters, this thesis examines how individuals of different ages interpret reasons for inequality that are common in social life yet underexplored in developmental research. Chapter 2 investigates how people reason about unequal compensation in division-of-labor contexts, where individuals assume distinct, qualitatively different roles. Specifically, it explores how children and adults judge the fairness of such disparities when they have limited information about what these roles actually entail. Chapters 3 and 4 examine wealth disparities that arise not from individual effort but from family ties. These chapters ask whether children, like adults, see inherited wealth as a distinct form of acquisition—separate from both meritorious and windfall resources—or if they equate it with luck. Chapter 5 asks whether children and adults perceive wealth that a social group gained through historical transgressions as justifiable or in need of redress. Overall, this thesis explores how individuals develop beliefs about economic inequality and its legitimacy. The findings contribute to broader discussions on the psychological mechanisms that may lead to the justification of social stratification and shed light on how fairness principles evolve in response to real-world complexities.

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