Poster #128 - The Role of Context, Executive Functioning, and Theory of Mind on Sharing Behaviour

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Within the realm of prosocial behaviour, sharing holds a unique place. By definition, it requires “giving up one’s own resources to benefit another” (Tisak & Ford, 1986), which has the potential to be a quite costly and effortful overture. Highlighting the challenge of sharing for young children specifically, research has documented that sharing occurs much less frequently among preschoolers compared to other prosocial behaviours (Eisenberg, 2005; Warneken & Tomasello, 2007). Indeed, before the age of 5 years, children are often thought to be quite self-interested when it comes to resource distribution (Damon, 1975, 1980). Moreover, children of this age tend to require explicit cueing by prospective recipients (e.g., Brownell, Iesue, Nichols, & Svetlova, 2013; Wu & Su, 2014). Although more spontaneous and generous sharing behaviours eventually do follow, children do not share indiscriminately. Certainly, there are a number of contextual factors that may influence the degree to which children share their resources with others, including with whom they are sharing and under what circumstance. Furthermore, it may be the case that in order for more sophisticated sharing behaviour to emerge, children require some prerequisite socio-cognitive and cognitive skills. Specifically, the abilities to infer and reason about the intentions of their social partners (Theory of Mind; ToM) and regulate behaviour accordingly (executive functions; EF) are thought to play an important role in children’s sharing. However, there are few studies to date that examine the cognitive skills that may facilitate children’s sharing behaviour.

The current study explored preschool-aged (4-6 years; N=118) children’s sensitivity to cooperative and competitive social contexts, as well as their ability to flexibly adapt their sharing behaviour across the two contexts. Furthermore, we examined how preschoolers modify sharing behaviour based on audio messages from a (fictional) social partner within both contexts. Children completed a resource allocation task where they determined whom, between themselves and a social partner, would receive items that were important to winning a game. Audio messages from partners conveyed a willingness (or lack thereof) to collaborate. Sharing behaviours were evaluated as a function of both social context (cooperative vs. competitive) and message type (team-oriented vs. self-oriented). ToM and EF were also examined.

Children shifted their behaviour according to context in a manner that facilitated either joint or competitive goals (i.e., sharing more resources with potential teammates, and fewer resources with potential opponents). The extent to which they shifted their behaviour was predicted by ToM ability. ToM was also a predictor of children’s sharing behaviours in cooperative contexts. Although they were not specifically asked about their impressions of their partners during the game, it was anticipated that the type of messages they received would affect children’s inclination to share. There were no main effects of age or message type. However, there was an interaction between age and message such that only the youngest children (4-year-olds) shifted sharing behaviour according to message. Thus, older children may be focused on the contextual cues, such that partner utterances are less salient, whereas younger children’s sharing is influenced by partner cues.

Authors

• Alanna Valcke, University of Waterloo
  Presenting Author

• Elizabeth Nilsen, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author