title: Children's evaluation of public and private generosity and its relation to behavior: Evidence from China.
abstract: This research examined children's evaluation of public and private prosocial giving and whether such evaluation would predict actual behavior. We tested children between 6 and 12 years old (N=192) in China, where children are socialized not to call positive attention to themselves. In Study 1, a significant age-related change was found; younger children evaluated public acts of prosocial giving more favorably than private acts, whereas older children showed the opposite pattern. Study 2 not only replicated the findings of Study 1 but also showed that children's evaluation of public versus private giving predicted their actual behavior in communicating about their own prosocial giving. These findings are the first to show that age-related changes in children's understanding of generosity predict reputation management behavior.
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang 321004, China; University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. Electronic address: gheyman@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Gail D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Heyman
authors.affiliation: Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 311121, China.
authors.forename: Genyue
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Barner
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang 321004, China.
authors.forename: Hu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhishan
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang 321004, China.
authors.forename: Lixia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua, Zhejiang 321004, China; University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2X2, Canada.
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D037921:Gift Giving; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Age differences; Child attitudes; Impression management; Reputation; Social behavior; Social cognition