Inequity Aversion and Altruism in Children of Three Cultures Pubblico
Zhang, Jinyi (2017)
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
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