Cultural Differences in Social Values Orientation: A Closer Look at Cooperative Behavior in Preschool-aged Children

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Parents and teachers encourage preschool-aged children to share with their peers. Sharing resources equally – egalitarianism – is beneficial to humans and shapes their interactions (Boehm et al., 1993; Dawes et al., 2007). But is a generosity motive—a tendency to share more than expected—synonymous with an egalitarian motive? Psychology research concerned with children’s social values orientation (SVO) has traditionally conflated the two as cooperative SVO, the preference to maximize the combined group total. Individualist SVO, the preference to maximize personal total, independent of the effect their choice has on others, and competitive SVO, the preference to maximize personal total in relation to others (i.e., have more), have also been widely studied using simple resource allocation games (Knight, 1981; Van Lange et al., 1997). SVO is thought to develop during early childhood and remain stable through adulthood (Fehr et al., 2008; Knight et al., 1995). Cooperative SVO is associated with positive social interactions and higher levels of altruism, empathy, and helpfulness (Balliet et al., 2009; Declerck & Bogaert, 2008; McClintock & Allison, 1989). Recent work in behavioral economics allows us to better understand cooperative SVO by distinguishing the egalitarian and generous motives that drive cooperation (Fehr et al., 2008).
Because SVO is known to relate closely to cultural values, we were interested in evaluating how culture relates to these distinct cooperative motives (e.g., House et al, 2013). The present study was concerned with whether cultural collectivism, long associated with cooperation, is animated more so by generosity or egalitarianism. Similarly, we investigated whether SVO of collectivists differed from two other culture groups—cultural individualists and a mixed cultural background group. We hypothesized that collectivist preschoolers would be more cooperative than the other groups, consistent with the literature. Further, we predicted that generosity would animate cooperative behavior for collectivists, more so than for other culture groups.
We tested these hypotheses by utilizing the methodology of Fehr and colleagues (2008) with a multicultural sample of preschoolers attending Head Start. Participants (n = 175) played three games in which they split resources (stickers) between themselves and a hypothetical classmate. Choices across games resulted in SVO classification as egalitarian, generous, or competitive. Finally, we examined whether SVO and culture related to behavioral adjustment in the classroom, measured by the teacher-reported Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, 1994). Data were analyzed using a series of chi-square tests of significance and independent samples t-tests to assess for group differences in SVO. We conducted an ANOVA and MANCOVA to test for a relationship between SVO and behavioral adjustment, and whether that relationship depended upon culture. Results indicated that frequency of generous, egalitarian, and competitive SVO types differed significantly by culture, x2 (4, N = 175) = 11.52, p = .025. Collectivists were more generous than egalitarian, consistent with our predictions. These findings suggest that cooperative behavior in collectivists is motivated by generosity, not egalitarianism. By better understanding the social values of collectivist preschoolers, we can encourage educators to nurture these values and ultimately create a more inclusive learning environment.

Authors

• Erinn E Savage, Washington State University
  Presenting Author

• Paul S Strand, Washington State University
  Non-Presenting Author