Abstract

Introduction: Justice is key for social stability, progress and peace, but the scientific understanding of its development is still in its early stages. This paper reviews some sociocognitive and evolutionary key theories on how the sense of justice develops during childhood. Methods: This is a scientific essay, based on a critical review of the current specialized literature on the topic. Two AI programs were used only to help identify key theories (Gemini and Elicit), not to review the content and synthesize each of them, which is an original writing work based on the interpretation of the present author. Results: Eight main theories and its basic ideas are reviewed. These theories identify core themes and mechanisms in the development of the sense of justice, and are: interdependence, cooperation, respect, mind reading, social norms, difference principle, aversion to inequality, and punishment. Discussion: It is posited that these eight core themes represent key sociocognitive mechanisms without which the human sense of justice would not be possible as we know it. Theoretical and practical implications for understanding the complexity of early human and sociocultural development of the sense of justice are discussed.

Keywords

justice, moral development, childhood, culture, cooperation, evolutionary theory