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How 18- and 24-month-old peers divide resources among themselves
Julia Ulber1, Katharina Hamann1, Michael Tomasello1
1Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Insights
Young children, aged 18-24 months, demonstrate generosity rather than selfishness when dividing unowned resources. They often share equally, even sacrificing personal resources to achieve fairness in resource distribution.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
- Child Development
Background:
- Young children are often perceived as selfish due to reluctance in sharing possessed items.
- Previous research often focuses on resource guarding rather than equitable distribution of novel resources.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate resource division behaviors in toddlers (18- and 24-month-olds) with unowned resources.
- To determine if toddlers exhibit selfish or generous behavior in resource allocation scenarios.
Main Methods:
- Pairs of toddlers were presented with unowned resources in various experimental conditions.
- Observed instances of resource monopolization versus peaceful division.
- Analyzed the impact of joint action and ownership cues (spatial, color) on division outcomes.
Main Results:
- Very few instances of resource monopolization were observed.
- Toddlers predominantly engaged in peaceful division, ensuring each child received resources.
- Equal divisions, including self-sacrifice for equality, were common, especially during joint activities.
- Ownership cues influenced division patterns.
Conclusions:
- Toddlers are not inherently selfish with unowned resources; they display generous and equitable division tendencies.
- Joint engagement, even without explicit collaboration, promotes fairness in resource distribution.
- Early childhood resource division is influenced by social context and emerging concepts of ownership.
Abstract:
Young children are often considered "selfish" with resources because they are reluctant to give up things already in their possession (e.g., as in dictator games). In the current two studies, we presented pairs of 18- and 24-month-old toddlers with various situations involving resources that no one possessed ahead of time. We observed very few instances of individuals attempting to monopolize the resources; rather, the pair peaceably divided them such that each child got something. Equal divisions--even involving one child sacrificing his or her own resources to establish equality-were especially pronounced when children were acting together jointly even in the absence of active collaboration. Children's divisions were also influenced by cues to ownership such as a spatial pre-division of resources and resources marked by color (and originally spatially associated with one individual). These results suggest that young children are not selfish, but instead rather generous, with resources when they are dividing them among themselves.
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