A study by the University of Washington (USA) once shows thatthe sense of justice and altruism emerge with only 15 months of age., much earlier than previously thought. As published by Jessicca Sommerville and her colleagues in the magazinePLoS ONE, in a series of experiments with fifty children found that babies perceive at these ages thedifferences between equal and unequal distribution of food. Specifically, while the babies observed how cookies or milk were distributed, the phenomenon of “violation of expectations” occurred, which caused children to spend more time looking at the food when the quantities of the distribution surprised them.
On the other hand, to analyze whether babies’ sense of justice is related to their vWillingness to share, the researchers did a second test in which they were asked to share a toy to choose between a favorite and a simpler one. And they found that babies who were more sensitive to the equitable distribution of food were also more likely to share their favorite toy. Specifically92 percent of babies who shared their favorite toy spent more time looking at the uneven distribution of foodwhile 86 percent of the babies who shared the toy they liked least were missed the most when fair distribution occurred. Scientists conclude that differences in the tendency to altruistic behavior appear at a very young age, and that educators should take this into account.
