Resumen

BRAICOVICH, Rodrigo Sebastián. Ontogeny of the sense of justice. The criterion of equality analyzed by developmental psychology. Psicol. Conoc. Soc. [online]. 2020, vol.10, n.2, pp.103-122.  Epub 01-Ago-2020. ISSN 1688-7026.  https://doi.org/10.26864/pcs.v10.n2.7.

The aim of the article is to offer a review of the research in developmental psychology concerning the first manifestations of our tendency to resort -in a spontaneous and unconscious manner- to the criterion of equality in our assessment of intersubjective situations. As I will show throughout the paper, two different (and even conflicting) models have been proposed to explain those early manifestations. The first model, (which I will call “dual model”) suggests that we interpret the ontogenesis of our sense of justice through two distinct and clearly sequenced moments, which are the expression of two distinct and relatively independent psychological modules: the moments of manifestation of our Disadvantageous Inequality Aversion (DIA) (around four years of old) and our Advantageous Inequality Aversion (AIA) (around eight years old). The second model (which I will call “unitary model”) suggests, on the contrary, that children begin to resort to the criterion of equality when they are around 12 months old, and that such criterion is independent from -or, at least, logically prior to- the distinction between DIA and AIA. I will suggest, nevertheless, that the differences between both models should not hinder us from concluding that the research produced throughout the last decade has provided us with a solid ground to begin to understand the specificity of the ontogeny of our sense of justice.

Palabras clave : Sense of justice; criteria of justice; equality; developmental psychology.

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