title: Children's Sharing Behavior in Mini-Dictator Games: The Role of In-Group Favoritism and Theory of Mind.
abstract: This study investigated the motivational and social-cognitive foundations (i.e., inequality aversion, in-group bias, and theory of mind) that underlie the development of sharing behavior among 3- to 9-year-old Chinese children (N = 122). Each child played two mini-dictator games against an in-group member (friend) and an out-group member (stranger) to divide four stickers. Results indicated that there was a small to moderate age-related increase in children's egalitarian sharing with strangers, whereas the age effect was moderate to large in interactions with friends. Moreover, 3- to 4-year-olds did not treat strangers and friends differently, but 5- to 6-year-old and older children showed strong in-group favoritism. Finally, theory of mind was an essential prerequisite for children's sharing behavior toward strangers, but not a unique predictor of their sharing with friends.
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy of Sciences.|University of Maryland.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1219-2391
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Chinese Academy of Sciences.
authors.forename: Liqi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Rutgers University.
authors.forename: Alan M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Leslie
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005260:Female; D033062:Friends / Q000523:psychology*; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D056345:Theory of Mind