Inequity Aversion and Altruism in Children of Three Cultures Open Access

Abstract

By as early as 15 months, children show emerging signs of inequity aversion and altruism. However, past studies on the two topics largely focused on decision-making that involves dividing positive objects. Little research has been done to investigate whether the egalitarian tendency or altruistic tendency would change when children have to make decisions about harm inflicted on themselves or others. A study consisting of three games captures the development of inequity aversion and altruism from a cross-cultural and developmental perspective. Two hundred and twenty 3-14 years old children from Samoa, China and the US were tested for three games. In the first game, children were asked to choose between equal and unequal allocations of rewards. The second game mirrored the protocol of the first game; the difference was changing the rewards to negative consequences. In the two games, American children behaved the most egalitarian, Chinese children behaved the most altruistic and Samoan children displayed the most conflicting interests. We observed a developmental trend of egalitarianism when sharing rewards, and a trend of altruism when sharing harm. Children's behavioral type in the candy game was correlated with their behavioral type in the bug game. In the third game, children were asked to inflict pain on themselves versus others in exchange for rewards. While children from other combinations of age groups and cultures did not differ in their level of pain chosen for themselves and others, older Chinese children inflicted significantly less pain for others compared to the pain they inflicted on themselves, indicating high levels of altruism. Children's behavioral types in the first two games were not correlated with their choices in the rubber band game. Results are discussed in the context of different cultural theories and empirical research in development, and answered the question of how children's emerging egalitarianism and altruism are jointly shaped by age and culture.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...………………1

Sharing in Development………………………………………………………...….……..2

Sharing in Different Cultures…………………………………………………....……...…3

Altruism………………………………………………………….…….…………………6

"Hyperaltruism" and Inequity Aversion When Sharing Harm…………………………..8

Altruism in Different Cultures…………………………………………...………………9

The Current Research……………………………………………………………………10

Research aim………………………………………………………….…………10

Three cultural contexts……..……………………………………………………11

Three games…………………………...................……………………...………13

Rationale and hypotheses……………………………………………………….13

METHOD………………………………………………………………………………………..15

Participants……………………………………………………………..………………..15

Materials………………………………………………………………..………………..16

Procedure…………………………………………………………….…………………..17

Coding…………………………………………………………………..………………..20

RESULTS………………………………………………………………….…………...………..22

The Candy Game………………………………………………………………….……..22

The Bug Game………………………………………………………………….………..24

Consistency between Candy and Bug Game………………..………………………..….25

Variability from the Candy Game to the Bug Game…………………………………….26

Summary and Discussion for the Candy and Bug Game Results……………...……...…27

The Rubber Band Game…………………………………………………………...……..28

Correlation between the Candy Game and the Rubber Band Game, and between the Bug Game and the Rubber Band Game……………………………………………………….28

Summary and Discussion for The Rubber Band Game Results……………..….……….29

GENERAL DISCUSSION………………………………………………………………..……..30

How do children from different cultures differ in their egalitarian and altruistic behaviors? ………………………………………………………………………...……..30

How do children's egalitarian and altruistic behaviors change as a function of age?.......34

Within Subject Correlation: What Does It Mean?…………………………………….…35

Limitations and Future Directions……………………………………………….………37

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………..………………38

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………..40

TABLE 1………………………………………………………………………………...……….47

TABLE 2………………………………………………………………………………...……….47

FIGURE 1………………………………………………………………………………...…..….48

FIGURE2 a……………………………………………………………………………...….……49

FIGURE 2 b…………………………………………………………………………...…………50

FIGURE 3 a…………………………………………………………………………...….…..….51

FIGURE 3 b…………………………………………………………………………...…..…….52

FIGURE 4………………………………………………………………………………….…….53

FIGURE 5………………………………………………………………………………...…..….54

FIGURE 6………………………………………………………………………………...…..….55

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Psychology
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Cognitive
Keyword	moral reasoning fairness inequity aversion altruism cross-cultural
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Rochat, Philippe, Emory University
Committee Members	Lourenco, Stella, Emory University Shore, Bradd, Emory University

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