Sex differences in children's reward allocation under competitive and cooperative instructional sets.

Abstract

Investigators have become increasingly concerned with the developing child's notions of distributive justice, deservedness, and fairness (Lerner, Miller, & Holmes, 1976). One paradigm designed to assess these variables involves an allocation procedure in which children are instructed to distribute rewards between themselves and a fictitious co-worker or between two fictitious co-workers who are presented as differing in their relative productivity on a simple task. One factor which is believed to influence even the young child's allocation behavior is the perception of workers being in either a unit or nonunit relationship with one another (Lerner, 1975; Lerner et al., 1976). When individuals perceive recipients as being in a team (unit) relationship with one another, they are expected to minimize the differences in relative inputs and allocate the resources approximately equally; when the recipients are perceived as being in a nonteam (nonunit) relationship, an allocation of rewards proportional to their relative inputs is judged as appropriate. One study in which first-grade boys and girls were asked to divide rewards between themselves and a co-worker under team and nonteam instructional sets supports this notion (Lerner, 1974, Exp. 3). Although some contradictory evidence has been reported, studies in which the individual has been selected to distribute rewards between him/herself and others have generally indicated that males have a greater preference for equity than females when equity and equality conflict (see Walster & Walster, 1975; Leventhal, Note 1). Males have generally been found to be assertive and exploitative in distributing rewards, choosing unequal allocations which favor themselves. On the other hand, females have typically been found to be accommodative, affiliative, and concerned with others' feelings and reflect these concerns in their distribution of resources to others. Sex differences in allocation behavior may be expected to be most prevalent in a situation wherein a conflict between one's selfinterest and a concern for others is salient. A