Do social descriptive norms about generosity change children's sharing
decisions and beliefs?
Abstract
Children construct their social preferences and behaviors based on their
social interactions and beliefs about other’s behavior. Most studies
that evaluate the influence of social norms on children’s sharing
behavior has focused on sharing decisions, while no previous study has
evaluated whether norms about generosity could change beliefs about
other’s sharing behavior. In the current study, 4–10-year-old children
(N = 101) played two dictator games; one as baseline and the other after
being exposed to either a generous or a selfish descriptive norm. Our
results showed that, after being exposed to descriptive norms, all
children changed their beliefs about others’ sharing behavior. However,
these norms did not influence children’s sharing decisions. These
results suggest that children´s beliefs about sharing behavior could be
more malleable than their actual sharing decisions. These insights might
help to design interventions aimed to change beliefs and, in turn, to
model prosocial behaviors in children.