title: The development of generosity and moral cognition across five cultures.
abstract: Morality is an evolved aspect of human nature, yet is heavily influenced by cultural environment. This developmental study adopted an integrative approach by combining measures of socioeconomic status (SES), executive function, affective sharing, empathic concern, theory of mind, and moral judgment in predicting sharing behavior in children (N = 999) from the age of 5 to 12 in five large-scale societies: Canada, China, Turkey, South Africa, and the USA. Results demonstrate that age, gender, SES, culture, and social cognitive mechanisms explain over 20% of the variance worldwide in children's resource allocation. These findings are discussed in reference to standard cultural comparisons (individualist/collectivist), as well as the degree of market integration, and highlight continuities and discontinuities in children's generosity across urban contexts.
authors.affiliation: The Child Neurosuite - Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Jason M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cowell
authors.affiliation: Erick Jackman Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto, Canada.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malcolm-Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Koc University, Turkey.
authors.forename: Bilge
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Selcuk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sun-Yat Sen University, China.
authors.forename: Xinyue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: The Child Neurosuite - Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA.
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Decety
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000533:Altruism; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000208:ethnology; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003469:Culture; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D035863:Moral Development; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors