Preschoolers' Altruistic Sharing Towards Prosocial and Antisocial Recipients

Indirect reciprocity expects people to selectively benefit prosocial recipients and avoid benefitting antisocial recipients in altruistic behavior. This study aimed to reveal developmental changes in altruistic sharing and preference toward prosocial and antisocial recipients during preschool. Sixty-six preschoolers aged between four and six years participated in the experiment. Initially, participants watched a video where one puppet displayed prosocial behavior and another displayed antisocial behavior. Subsequently, the preschoolers were asked to allocate four stickers between each puppet and themselves. After the allocations were performed, the participants were asked which puppet they preferred. The analyses revealed that older children allocated less selfishly when the recipient was prosocial compared to younger children; however, no differences were noticed in the allocation to antisocial recipients. The preference for prosocial puppets over antisocial puppets was not significant and was not related to resource allocation. The results suggest that the tendency to share more with prosocial recipients increases with age during preschool.