When Generosity Backfires: Children's Evaluation of Sharing With Negative Social Consequences

Generosity is widely regarded as one of the most praiseworthy virtues. However, when individuals engage in generous acts, such behavior can sometimes lead to unintended consequences, such as overshadowing the reputations of others. Across two studies (N = 512), we examined how 8- to 12-year-old children and adults evaluate generous sharing when it undermines a peer's reputation, and whether this evaluation is moderated by the social relationship between the individuals involved. Participants were presented with a vignette in which an actor shared more than a peer-who was either a friend or a stranger-resulting in the peer's reputation being either harmed or not. Results showed that children evaluated the actor's sharing more negatively and were less willing to befriend with the actor when it harmed the peer's reputation compared to when it did not, and this effect was not influenced by the social relationship between the actor and the peer (Study 1a). Further studies, which modified the materials and included a larger sample encompassing adults, consistently found that social relationship did not affect children's or adults' evaluations of reputation-harming sharing (Studies 1b and 2). The findings demonstrate that children in middle childhood evaluate sharing behavior with attention not only to the act's generosity, but also to the broader social implications it may carry.