Norway Study: How Children Outgrow Socialism

[The Village Idiot]

Kids start off like Karl Marx and end up like a member of the IOC. (DUers never grew up)

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/05/how-children-outgrow-socialism.html

Children start off like Karl Marx, but they eventually become more like a member of the International Olympic Committee. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that children's views on fairness change from egalitarian to merit-based as they grow older. The results help explain why society rewards high achievers with high pay, and they could help educators better motivate children.

The find comes thanks to an economic experiment known as the dictator game. Researchers led by experimental economist Alexander Cappelen of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen recruited youths aged 10 through 18 from schools near Bergen. Each child was paired with another student he or she didn’t know and then given a chance to earn real money by repeatedly noting the appearance of a particular three-figure number on a computer screen filled with large tables of numbers. Some students performed better at the task and thus earned more money. At the end of the game, the money earned by the pair was pooled, and one of the two students—the dictator—was asked to divvy up the cash with his or her partner in a way that he or she deemed fair.

Age determined how evenly the children divided up the earnings. About two-thirds of the youngest children, aged 10 to 11, split the pot evenly regardless of their own or their partner’s achievements. Older teenagers, however, split the pot based on achievement. Among 18-year-olds, for example, only 22% split the pot evenly with their partner, whereas 43% kept more for themselves because they felt like they’d earned it, the researchers report in tomorrow's issue of Science.

The results suggest that concepts of fairness become more merit-based as children grow up and as they participate in activities like sports and school that reward achievement, Cappelen says. "Adolescence is a very important period for shaping children’s fairness views.” The results could also help educators set up reward systems that the students themselves consider fair, he adds, which could lead to more harmonious classrooms and better student performance.

“I think it’s an interesting and important study,” says behavioral economist James Konow of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. But he is not as convinced as the authors that concepts of fairness are shaped by experience.



sorry I had to post the whole thing

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

So what you're saying is: egalitarianism is naive and the longer people work the more they want to be rewarded based on their own merits so maybe Marxism is for non-achievers who want to not be left behind bt taking from others?

Who knew?!?!

[JohnnyReb]

So what you're saying is: egalitarianism is naive and the longer people work the more they want to be rewarded based on their own merits so maybe Marxism is for non-achievers who want to not be left behind bt taking from others?

Who knew?!?!

A few hundred more millions spent studying this phenomenon and they might just figure it all out...........nah, the DUmmies will never get it.....just needs another government funded study because the results don't fit "The Plan".

[The Village Idiot]

So what you're saying is: egalitarianism is naive and the longer people work the more they want to be rewarded based on their own merits so maybe Marxism is for non-achievers who want to not be left behind bt taking from others?

Who knew?!?!

This is a shocking result for liberals, like the 3 Harvard Business School professors who were stunned to learn that more government equals less private sector economy

[kenth]

This is a shocking result for liberals, like the 3 Harvard Business School professors who were stunned to learn that more government equals less private sector economy

Blind men and the elephant. Leftists like the dummies and college professors rarely take part in the real world. They merely come up with half-assed ideas as to how it works. Their concrete block and chicken wire mock-up of the economy never seems to work out in real life.

[cavegal]

Kids start off like Karl Marx and end up like a member of the IOC. (DUers never grew up)

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/05/how-children-outgrow-socialism.html

Children start off like Karl Marx, but they eventually become more like a member of the International Olympic Committee. That’s the conclusion of a new study, which finds that children's views on fairness change from egalitarian to merit-based as they grow older. The results help explain why society rewards high achievers with high pay, and they could help educators better motivate children.

The find comes thanks to an economic experiment known as the dictator game. Researchers led by experimental economist Alexander Cappelen of the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration in Bergen recruited youths aged 10 through 18 from schools near Bergen. Each child was paired with another student he or she didn’t know and then given a chance to earn real money by repeatedly noting the appearance of a particular three-figure number on a computer screen filled with large tables of numbers. Some students performed better at the task and thus earned more money. At the end of the game, the money earned by the pair was pooled, and one of the two students—the dictator—was asked to divvy up the cash with his or her partner in a way that he or she deemed fair.

Age determined how evenly the children divided up the earnings. About two-thirds of the youngest children, aged 10 to 11, split the pot evenly regardless of their own or their partner’s achievements. Older teenagers, however, split the pot based on achievement. Among 18-year-olds, for example, only 22% split the pot evenly with their partner, whereas 43% kept more for themselves because they felt like they’d earned it, the researchers report in tomorrow's issue of Science.

The results suggest that concepts of fairness become more merit-based as children grow up and as they participate in activities like sports and school that reward achievement, Cappelen says. "Adolescence is a very important period for shaping children’s fairness views.” The results could also help educators set up reward systems that the students themselves consider fair, he adds, which could lead to more harmonious classrooms and better student performance.

“I think it’s an interesting and important study,” says behavioral economist James Konow of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. But he is not as convinced as the authors that concepts of fairness are shaped by experience.



sorry I had to post the whole thing

FGL enjoyed this read!!! thanks!!