Socialism Gives Way to Merit-based Value System
Offline 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.
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/05/how-children-outgrow-socialism.html
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
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Is the change cultural or hard-wired? I saw an article in Science Daily this morning (link here http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100527013329.htm ) that suggests there are mental 'laws' that relate to values, that these laws are individual-specific, with a 'fingerprint' variability - everyone is different. Further, the study supports the idea that responses to these mental laws are mathematically consistent.
This second is an interesting study at a number of levels, given it could be tied to morality and even free-will.
"Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination." Max Planck
Not that what I am about to say is related. But when laymen in the west, especially America hear the word "socialism" they automatically think of the totalitarian Russian state. That was a bastardization of what Marx was offering and not even close to what he proposed.
AND on top of that to say that socialism is always bad is absurd. It has always existed in America in some form, you cannot have a purely private sector. We have the post office, police, fire, water, military, schools. social security......ect ect ect.
None of those things have wiped out the private sector.
When someone suggests that oversight is needed the right wing in this country goes nuts. After banks and Wall Street and car companies and now BP have proven that "self regulation" doesn't always work, I dont think that they should be bitching about others suggesting a speed limit and cops patrolling the highway to insure safe driving.
It saddens me that it always seems to take a tragedy for humanity to open it's eyes. I do get tired of those who blindly defend the rich class as if others want to make everyone poor and become a nanny state. NO, what I am against is abuse of power. Just like I would be against nanny states like Iran, North Korea and the former Soviet Union. Giving a blank check to any one class, political party or religion without checks and balances a road to disaster.
What we have in America is our own form of abuse of power. The abuse is the corporate anarchy and climate of no rules. It is not either or for me. You cant have too many rules or no rules. You have to have balance and not all things that are "socialized" are bad. We need police, fire, water, electric, military, schools, and social security. All those things ARE socialized, but do not constitute a ban on the private sector.
We need livable wages here. We need jobs here. We need less of a pay gap between the highest paid and lowest paid. We need to stop selling this idea that the only way to be considered valuable is to be a slave to work and dept.
If people can pay their bills and spend time with their families they will be more productive at work and will be less likely to turn to government for protection. If the corporate class really cares about humanity, and not just it's shareholders and CEOs, then they have it within their power to change. Life cannot simply be about making money. It has to also include building things and improving the quality of life for all.
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There is no way to separate kids, or anybody for that matter, from the society they live in. This is the problem with studies like this, are the results from biology or society? I wonder what the results would have been like in Barcelona or any of the other Spanish Anarcho-Syndicalist cities in 1936. If they happened to be the same, then you could say it's biological; if not, then it's social upbringing. Interesting study though.
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