“Never mind”: social class differences in children’s developing emotion attributions to procedural justice outcomes

ABSTRACT

This study examined children’s emotion attributions and moral judgements to hypothetical procedural justice outcomes when the candidates were equal in merit but different in need. Children (7 to 11 years old, N = 88) were presented with four vignettes depicting resource-rich and resource-poor candidates losing educational materials and experiences. Results demonstrated that children attributed more negative emotions when the resource-poor candidate lost resources. Older children attributed more two-sided emotions to procedural justice outcomes, mainly when the resource-poor candidates lost resources. However, emotion complexity was not always positively associated with welfare justifications, such that children considered the type of resource, needs of the candidates, and outcomes. In addition, children from low subjective social status (SSS) attributed more positive emotions and used more emotion complexity for the loser. Results are discussed concerning children’s developing emotion attribution and understanding of procedural justice.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotion attribution
• the complexity of emotions
• procedural justice
• moral development

Disclosure statement

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

Data availability statement

Data is available upon request

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.