Attributions, or lay explanations for inequality, have been linked to inequality-relevant behavior. In adults and children, attributing inequality to an individual rather than contextual or structural causes is linked to greater support for economic inequality and less equitable giving. However, few studies have directly examined the relationship between parent and child attributions for inequality. Additionally, it remains unclear whether attributing inequality to individually controllable sources such as effort might lead children to allocate resources more inequitably than individually uncontrollable sources like innate ability. Across three studies (N = 698), we examine the developmental origins and behavioral consequences of inequality beliefs by exploring parent and children's (7–14 years old) attributions for unequal situations. In Study 1, parents, recruited through MTurk, preferred to explain inequality to their children by attributing disparities to effort rather than uncontrollable causes such as ability or luck. In Study 2, in a sample of affluent and mostly white families in Vancouver and Boston, parent attributions for inequality predicted children's attributions, such that children were more than two times as likely to attribute inequality to effort when their parents did. In Study 3, when a convenience sample of children from Washington state were brought to the laboratory and told that an inequality between two groups was due to effort, they were more likely to perpetuate the inequality by giving to the individual who already had more resources. This research documents a cycle of inequality perpetuation by demonstrating that parent attributions for inequality predict their children's attributions and that these attributions affect children's equitable giving. This work highlights the importance of examining the perceived controllability of inequality.

归因或对不平等的通俗解释与不平等相关的行为有关。在成人和儿童中，将不平等归因于个人而不是背景或结构性原因与对经济不平等的更大支持和不太公平的捐赠有关。然而，很少有研究直接研究父母和孩子对不平等的归因之间的关系。此外，尚不清楚将不平等归因于个人可控的来源（如努力）是否会导致儿童分配资源的方式比个人不可控的来源（如先天能力）更不公平。跨越三项研究（N = 698），我们通过探索父母和孩子（7-14 岁）对不平等情况的归因来研究不平等信念的发展起源和行为后果。在研究 1 中，通过 MTurk 招募的父母更愿意通过将差异归因于努力而不是诸如能力或运气等无法控制的原因来向他们的孩子解释不平等。在研究 2 中，在温哥华和波士顿的一个富裕家庭和大多数白人家庭的样本中，父母对不平等的归因预测了孩子的归因，这样孩子将不平等归因于努力的可能性是父母的两倍多。在研究 3 中，当华盛顿州儿童的便利样本被带到实验室并被告知两组之间的不平等是由于努力造成的，他们更有可能通过给予已经拥有更多资源的个人来延续不平等。这项研究通过证明父母对不平等的归因可以预测他们孩子的归因，并且这些归因会影响孩子的公平给予，从而记录了不平等延续的循环。这项工作强调了检查不平等的可控性的重要性。