Sıvış, ÖzceAcar, Melike2023-10-182023-10-182023Acar, M., & Sıvış, Ö. (2023). “But the poor needed it more”: Children’s judgments on procedural justice to allocate resources between two candidates equal in merit, different in need. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 232, 105679.1096-04570022-0965https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11779/1971https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105679The current study investigated children's judgments on procedural justice and its outcomes when the candidates were equal in merit but different in need. A total of 88 children (41 girls and 47 boys) aged 7 to 11 years were individually interviewed (Mage = 8 years 9 months, SD = 14.065 months). Results showed that, regardless of age, children tended to give educational resources to the resource-poor candidates. However, children's welfare considera-tion of the resource-poor candidates increased with age. Children also made differentiated judgments based on the resource type and treated educational materials as more necessary than educa-tional experiences. Children's age and socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with this differentiation. Younger and high-SES children were more likely to view the outcome of procedural jus-tice (i.e., drawing a stick) for allocating an educational experience (i.e., summer camp) as fair when the result favored the resource -rich candidate. Overall, findings revealed that children do not use a unitary form of fairness in the procedural justice context. The shift from strict equality to welfare concerns continues to develop over middle childhood. (c) 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessMoral developmentProcedural justicePreschoolersPerceptionsInequalityAccessFairnessWelfareEqualityArticle10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105679370607882-s2.0-85152714044Q2Q2232WOS:000988314800001