In many situations, children evaluate straightforward resource inequalities as unfair. It remains unclear, however, how children interpret hidden inequalities (i.e., inequalities that are unknown to allocators and/or recipients). Children 3-9-years-old (N = 87) evaluated and attributed intentions to a naïve resource allocator who, while unaware of a hidden inequality, made three hypothetical resource allocations: 1) an unknowingly equitable allocation (which rectified the inequality), 2) an inequitable allocation (which perpetuated the inequality), and 3) an equal allocation (which maintained the inequality). Children without false belief morally-relevant theory of mind (FB MoToM) attributed more positive intentions to the unknowingly equitable allocation than to the inequitable allocation. Children with FB MoToM, however, did not differ in their attributions of intentions to the unknowingly equitable and inequitable allocations, reflecting their knowledge that the naïve allocator was not aware of the hidden inequality. Further, children's attributions of intentions were related to their evaluations of the allocations. These findings underscore the importance of children's social cognitive inferences to their evaluations of resource allocation decisions.

中文翻译：

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隐性不平等背景下的心理与资源分配理论

在许多情况下，儿童将直接的资源不平等视为不公平。然而，尚不清楚儿童如何解释隐藏的不平等（即分配者和/或接受者不知道的不平等）。3-9 岁的儿童 (N = 87) 评估并将意图归因于一个天真的资源分配者，尽管他没有意识到隐藏的不平等，但做出了三种假设的资源分配：1) 在不知不觉中公平分配（纠正了不平等）， 2）不公平的分配（使不平等永久化），以及 3）平等分配（维持不平等）。没有错误信念的儿童道德相关心智理论 (FB MoToM) 将更多的积极意图归因于不知情的公平分配，而不是不公平分配。然而，拥有 FB MoToM 的孩子们，他们将意图归因于不知情的公平分配和不公平分配并没有不同，这反映了他们知道天真的分配者没有意识到隐藏的不平等。此外，儿童对意图的归因与他们对分配的评估有关。这些发现强调了儿童的社会认知推论对他们评估资源分配决策的重要性。