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Abstract:
Adults under time pressure share with others generously, but with more time they act more
selfishly. In the current study, we investigated whether young children already operate in
this same way, and, if so, whether this changes over the preschool and early school age
years. We tested 144 children in three age groups (3-, 5-, and 7-year olds) in a one-shot dictator game: Children were given nine stickers and had the possibility to share stickers with
another child who was absent. Children in the Time Pressure condition were instructed to
share quickly, whereas children in the Delay condition were instructed to take time and consider their decision carefully. Across ages, children in the Time Pressure condition shared
significantly more stickers than children in the Delay condition. Moreover, the longer children
waited, the less they shared. Thus, children, like adults, are more prosocial when acting
spontaneously than after considering their decision more carefully.
