TY - JOUR
T1 - Young children selectively adopt sharing norms according to norm content and donor age
AU - Messer, Emily J. E.
AU - Lumsden, Amy
AU - Burgess, Vanessa
AU - McGuigan, Nicola
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (Ref 48186). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Michael Sinclair, Sarah Grant, Danielle Spencer, Orlagh Heffernan, and Kirsten Morgan for their help with data collection. We also thank the parents/guardians and children who participated in the project. Special thanks go to the National Museum of Scotland and RZSS Edinburgh Zoo for facilitating all aspects of data collection.
Funding Information:
This study was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation (Ref 48186). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. We thank Michael Sinclair, Sarah Grant, Danielle Spencer, Orlagh Heffernan, and Kirsten Morgan for their help with data collection. We also thank the parents/guardians and children who participated in the project. Special thanks go to the National Museum of Scotland and RZSS Edinburgh Zoo for facilitating all aspects of data collection.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2021/7
Y1 - 2021/7
N2 - As children grow and develop, they are faced with an array of different social norms. The current study aimed to determine whether 4- to 8-year-old children (N = 249) from Scotland, UK would vary their donating behavior after first viewing a prosocial or an egalitarian sharing norm. Sharing norms were conveyed via a video demonstration in which a majority of child models (three from four) opted for either a reward of equal value for themselves and a receiver (egalitarian norm) or a reward of greater value for the receiver (prosocial norm). The results showed that viewing a prosocial, but not an egalitarian, norm led to a change in the participants donating behavior relative to a control group. However, the increase in prosocial donating elicited by the prosocial norm was relatively small, suggesting that the influence of the norm was somewhat constrained by a strong preference for egalitarianism. These results indicate that descriptive sharing norms are both socially learnt and flexibly employed, and that the influence of such norms may be limited by an aversion to disadvantageous inequity.
AB - As children grow and develop, they are faced with an array of different social norms. The current study aimed to determine whether 4- to 8-year-old children (N = 249) from Scotland, UK would vary their donating behavior after first viewing a prosocial or an egalitarian sharing norm. Sharing norms were conveyed via a video demonstration in which a majority of child models (three from four) opted for either a reward of equal value for themselves and a receiver (egalitarian norm) or a reward of greater value for the receiver (prosocial norm). The results showed that viewing a prosocial, but not an egalitarian, norm led to a change in the participants donating behavior relative to a control group. However, the increase in prosocial donating elicited by the prosocial norm was relatively small, suggesting that the influence of the norm was somewhat constrained by a strong preference for egalitarianism. These results indicate that descriptive sharing norms are both socially learnt and flexibly employed, and that the influence of such norms may be limited by an aversion to disadvantageous inequity.
KW - Conformity
KW - Disadvantageous inequity
KW - Prosocial choice test
KW - Resource distribution
KW - Social norms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111510715&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101088
DO - 10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101088
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85111510715
SN - 0885-2014
VL - 59
JO - Cognitive Development
JF - Cognitive Development
M1 - 101088
ER -