Affluence of the Recipient, Value of Donations, and Sharing Behavior in Preschool Children

Twenty-eight four-year-old and 28 five- and six-year-old subjects were presented with either poor or rich recipients. The recipients were defined visually with a picture of the type of home they lived in and verbally with a brief story. All subjects were asked to share from 17 units of each of two types of candy, one of low and the other of high value. The subjects assigned poor recipients shared a significantly larger number of units than the subjects assigned rich recipients, and all subjects shared a significantly larger number of the low value items. The age and interaction effects were nonsignificant. The effect of the affluence of the recipient was interpreted in terms of the arousal of empathy.