The development of inequity aversion affecting factors and reputation anxiety examining the role

Inequity avoidance behavior, one of the basic components of justice, describes the attitudes people show to eliminate inequity, even at the cost of paying a price (Fehr and Schmidt, 1999). There are two forms of inequity aversion: disadvantageous inequity aversion (DIA) and advantageous inequity aversion (AIA) (Fehr and Schmidt, 1999). Although research shows that adults have a strong aversion to unequal gains distribution and sacrifice their personal gains (Fehr and Schmidt, 1999; Dawes et al., 2007), inequity avoidance behavior in children is thought to go through different developmental processes (Blake and McAuliffe, 2011). Although it is known that DIA occurs in middle childhood at the latest in different cultures, it is stated that AIA occurs at varying ages depending on the culture in which the child grows up (Blake et al., 2015; Schäfer et al., 2015). The emergence of AIA social contexts and later in childhood indicates that various socio-cognitive abilities have the potential to influence this behavior (McAuliffe et al., 2013). It is expected that one of the socio-cognitive features that may be developmentally effective for decisions regarding inequity aversion may be inhibitory control and the other may be theory of mind. However, the effects of these two skills on inequity avoidance development in kindergarten age have not yet been examined in detail. Specifically, previous work documented that one of the factors that facilitates the emergence of AIA is reputation concern. However, as far as is known, there is only one study that experimentally examines the effect of reputation concern on inequity avoidance development in childhood (McAuliffe et al., 2020). However, the role of reputational concern on inequity avoidance in early childhood has not yet been tested empirically. In this study, we aimed to test the causal role of reputational concerns in early childhood was examined with an experimental design for the first time. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the role of cognitive factors (theory of mind and inhibitory control skills) and reputation concern affecting the development of inequity avoidance behavior in children aged 4-5 with an experimental design. For this purpose, four reputation manipulation groups were created: The first group, in which both the receiver and the experimenter monitored the distribution results; the second group, in which the receiver monitored the results, but the experimenter did not; the third group, in which the experimenter monitored the results, but the receiver did not; the fourth group, in which neither party monitored the results. The sample of the study consists of 137 children (ngirl = 62, nboy = 74, nlost = 1) between the ages of 4-5. Participants were invited to the study through previously contacted teachers and kindergarten principals. Data was collected from five kindergartens in different districts of Istanbul. Participants were paired with a peer from different grades, equal in age and gender, and randomly assigned to one of four reputation manipulation groups. At the end of the Inequality Game (Blake, McAuliffe, 2011), participants were asked "How much did you like your game partner?" The question was scored on a 5-point Likert scale and included "Why did you choose these distributions?" The question was answered verbally. Then, the inhibitory control tasks of the Sally and Mother Tasks (Wimmer, Perner, 1983) and the Executive Functions Battery (Hamamcı, 2020) were administered. At the end of the experiment, the participants were thanked and given the candies they earned. For incentive purposes, a report on the theory of mind and inhibitory control skills of each child participating in the study was prepared and sent to the kindergarten. Analyzes revealed that participants exhibited DIA behavior by rejecting disadvantageous inequality distributions significantly more than equal distributions, but they did not show AIA behavior. No significant relationship was found between AIA score and theory of mind and inhibitory control scores. Considering possible differences between experimental groups, the relationships were tested separately for each experimental group. According to the results, a negative relationship was found between the AIA score and inhibitory control scores in the first reputation manipulation group, where the receiver and the experimenter saw the distribution results. No significant relationship was detected in the second manipulation group, where the receiver saw the distribution results but the experimenter did not. In the third manipulation group, where the experimenter saw the distribution results but the receiver did not, a positive relationship was found between AIA scores and age. In the fourth manipulation group, where the receiver and experimenter did not see the distribution results, no significant relationship was detected. It was found that the reputation manipulation groups did not differ significantly from each other in terms of the dependent variables considered. As a result of four separate models testing the moderating role of theory of mind, inhibitory control and experimental groups in the relationship between age and inequality avoidance; it was determined that the second and third experimental groups had a significant moderating role in the relationship between age and AIA behavior variables. It has been observed that inhibitory control and theory of mind do not have a regulatory effect. The situation in which the experimenter sees the results but the receiver does not, and the situation in which the receiver sees the results and the experimenter does not see the results, play an important role in regulating the relationship between age and AIA behavior. Reputation groups and inhibitory control skills did not have a moderating effect on the relationship between age and DIA behavior, but theory of mind was determined to have a moderating role. The negative relationship between age and DIA scores became positive with the increase in theory of mind scores.