Standards of Fair Play in Same- and Mixed-Age Groups of Children.

The present study investigated the hypothesis that children do not use the same standards of fair play in mixed-age situations as in same-age situations. It was further hypothesized that in mixed-age encounters, younger children would use cues associated with older children (i.e., physical size) as a basis for reward deservingness. Older children, however, would base their reward distribution on task performance. Children (48 first graders, 48 third graders) were shown a photo of two other children ("players"), and a photo of two stacks of building blocks each of the players supposedly built in a game. Children were asked to divide 10 prize chips between the two in the photo. Reward distribution was measured in a 2 (grade of child allocator) x 2 (relative size of the player) x 2 (mixed- or same-age group) x 3 (relative task performance) factorial design. Data corroborated the hypotheses. Third graders consistently divided rewards on the basis of task performance, ignoring age and size variables. First graders also allocated rewards on the basis of task performance, except when a player was both older and larger. Older, larger players received disproprotionally larger rewards than did same-age mates who had equivalent levels of task performance. (Author/MS)