Related Experiment Videos
The influence of intention and outcome on young children's reciprocal sharing
Zhen Zhang1, Patricia Grocke2, Michael Tomasello3
1CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
Insights
Young children
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Cognition
- Child Development
Background:
- Understanding reciprocity in young children is crucial for social development.
- Children's sharing behavior is influenced by various social cues.
- Previous research has explored factors affecting children's prosocial behavior.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how intention and outcome of a partner's sharing behavior influence young children's reciprocity.
- To examine age-related differences in processing intention and outcome information during sharing.
- To understand the development of flexible social interaction strategies in children.
Main Methods:
- 3- and 5-year-old children participated in a sharing task.
- Children were exposed to a partner's sharing behavior with varied intentions (to share/not share) and outcomes (received/did not receive stickers).
- Children's subsequent sharing behavior (amount and initiation) was recorded.
Main Results:
- 3-year-olds' sharing amount was influenced by the outcome, while initiation was affected by intention.
- 5-year-olds' sharing amount and initiation were influenced by both outcome and intention.
- 3-year-olds processed intention and outcome information separately; 5-year-olds integrated both.
Conclusions:
- 3-year-olds demonstrate a basic ability to differentiate between intention and outcome in reciprocal sharing.
- 5-year-olds develop the capacity to integrate intention and outcome for more adaptive social interactions.
- This developmental progression highlights the increasing cognitive flexibility in managing social exchanges to avoid exploitation.
Abstract:
This study investigated the influence of underlying intentions and outcomes of a partner's sharing behavior on young children's reciprocity. We provided 3- and 5-year-old children with the opportunity to share with a partner following different treatments of a partner's intention (to share or not to share) that led to different outcomes (children got or did not get stickers from their partner). For the 3-year-olds, we found that the outcome of the previous interaction influenced how much they shared, whereas the intention of their partner affected how readily they initiated sharing in response to social cues. For the 5-year-olds, we found that both outcome and intention affected how much they shared as well as how readily they initiated sharing. This suggests that already 3-year-olds are able to take into account outcome and intention information separately in reciprocal sharing. However, only 5-year-olds can combine both to flexibly maintain social interactions without running the risk of being exploited by others.