A plethora of reports by governmental agencies, think tanks, international organizations, and newspapers chart the development and stubborn persistence of income inequality in the UK. Epidemiological research has shown that societies with greater income inequality score lower than more equal societies in common public health indicators (e.g., morbidity, infant mortality; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2006), but also well-being and mental health (Pickett & Wilkinson, 2015). Thus, income inequality has adverse effects for individuals and societies at large. The purpose of this seminar series is to understand how children reason about inequalities at societal and interpersonal levels and how inequality affects them at a personal level. Looking at the developmental origins of the understanding of inequality may help us to combat acceptance of large differences in income inequality.
Some research has explored children’s acceptance of inequality at a societal level and in interpersonal interactions. At an explicit level, seminal work found that children do not support income inequalities based on occupation until they are over 8 years of age (Emler & Dickinson, 1985). More recent research also suggests that 8-year-old children are less likely to support school segregation based on income than are 14-year-old children (Tenenbaum, Leman, Aznar, Duthie, & Killen, 2018). Thus, acceptance of income inequality seems to increase throughout middle childhood and adolescence.
Given when these data were conducted on children’s understanding of income inequality, this project will examine whether children continue to support income inequality. We are particularly interested if opinions about key worker positions have changed after the lockdown. In the original study (Emler & Dickinson, 1985), children were asked about bus drivers, teachers, road sweepers, and doctors. They argued that doctors should be paid more because they have more education. In the present study, we will ask about the following occupations: Our full collection will be doctor, engineer, teacher, bank manager, bus driver, rubbish
All the necessary information is included in the uploaded OSF word doc
