  The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between
preschoolers' cognitive abilities and their fairness-related allocation
behaviors in a dilemma of equity-efficiency conflict. Four- to 6-year-olds in
Experiment 1 (N = 99) decided how to allocate 5 reward bells. In the
first-party condition, preschoolers were asked to choose among giving more to
self (self-advantageous inequity), wasting one bell (equity) or giving more to
other (self-disadvantageous inequity); while in the third-party condition, they
chose to allocate the extra bell to one of two equally deserving recipients or
to waste it. Results showed that compared to the pattern of decision in the
third-party condition, preschoolers in the first-party condition were more
likely to give the extra bell to other (self-disadvantaging behaviors), and
age, inhibitory control (IC) and theory of mind (ToM) were positively
correlated with their self-disadvantaging choices, but only IC mediated the
relationship between age and self-disadvantaging behaviors. Experiment 2 (N =
41) showed that IC still predicted preschoolers' self-disadvantaging behaviors
when they could choose only between equity and disadvantageous inequity. These
results suggested that IC played a critical role in the implementation of
self-disadvantaging behaviors when this required the control over selfishness
and envy.
