Distributive justice and development: Toward an integrative understanding of reward and responsibility distributions

ABSTRACT

Studies on development and fairness judgments in resource allocations have mainly addressed the distribution of reward. However, the distribution of responsibility also requires exploration in the context of research on development and distributive justice. For an integrated understanding of reward and responsibility distributions, we briefly reviewed the studies on children’s fairness judgments in reward and responsibility distributions. We then discussed the theoretical basis and methodological framework to further our understanding. After reviewing a study which considered both reward and responsibility distributions in the same experiment, we also discussed the questions to be solved to understand children’s fairness judgments in both types of distributions. Individual developmental process of fairness judgments, (in)consistency of judgments in reward and responsibility distributions, and generous judgments in allocations were discussed by referring to theoretical discussions of culture and reciprocity.

KEYWORDS:

• Reward distribution
• responsibility distribution
• fairness judgments
• rule application
• children

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI [Grant number 19K03275].

Notes on contributors

Akinobu Nameda

Akinobu Nameda is a Lecturer in Education Development Center at Shizuoka University in Japan. His research interest is in sense of fairness and negotiation process in couples in performing family work. He particularly focuses on the diversity of the practices of family work and how the form of those are changed in interactions with social cultural environment.

Yuto Kumaki

Yuto Kumaki is a Lecturer of Fukuoka Kyoiku University (University of Teacher Education Fukuoka). He is interested in the development of altruistic behavior and its cognitive foundation in the preschool period. His research has particularly focused on the selectivity in resource sharing from the perspectives of reciprocity.

Yuko Hashimoto

Yuko Hashimoto is a Professor in the School of Education at Kwansei Gakuin University. Her research focuses on the development of children’s fairness judgments on distribution of positive and negative resources, and early childhood curriculum promoting moral development from a constructivist approach. She also has been serving as the curriculum/professional development adviser of Haruono Gakuen Educational Foundation and conducting collaborative research with early childhood teachers and administrators on constructivist curriculum and instruction.

Yuichi Toda

Yuichi Toda is a Professor of Osaka Kyoiku University (Osaka University of Education). He was a visiting fellow at Goldsmiths College, University of London during March 1998-January 1999, and a short time visiting professor of University of Vienna in summer time from 2007 till 2010. He has co-edited two English language books and has written about 20 English journal articles on ‘bullying/ijime’, ‘fair distribution among young children’, etc. His research with Dr Dagmar Strohmeier has received ‘den Hauptpreis des Bank Austria Preises zur Förderung innovativer Forschungsprojekte 2008’ [the Bank Austria Prize for promoting innovative research projects, 2008]. He is a member of the Editorial Board of European Journal of Developmental Psychology.