Children prefer lucky friends

A new scientific study suggests that children prefer kids who seem to experience "uncontrollable good events," basically those who fate seems to smile upon. Psychologists from Harvard and Stanford asked a group of children to evaluate how much they liked certain other children in four imaginary scenarios, like a kid who found $5 on the ground (a positive chance event), one whose soccer game was rained out (a negative chance event), and other situations. Form the Harvard Gazette:

"If the children were equally disposed toward the lucky and the unlucky, you would expect equivalent opinions of individuals affected by both positive and negative random events," (Harvard grad student Kristina) Olson notes. "The discrepancy in opinions of the beneficiaries of good luck versus the victims of bad luck indicates that children prefer fortunate individuals over unfortunate individuals..."

"Our experiments show the difficulties that confront youngsters as they make judgments of those touched by luck or misfortune," Olson says. "Young children express stronger liking for the beneficiaries of good luck compared to the victims of bad luck and generalize this preference to those who share membership in a group. Because the disadvantaged are more likely to experience negative events beyond their control - such as the tendency for the poor to be most impacted by natural disasters - this innocuous preference for the privileged may eventually grow more harmful, further increasing negativity toward the disadvantaged. Such preferences may, in turn, help explain the persistence of social inequality."

Link (via Mind Hacks)