Learned Generosity? A Field Experiment with Parents and Their Children

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Abstract An active area of research within the social sciences concerns the underlying motivation for sharing scarce resources and engaging in other pro-social actions. We develop a theoretical framework that sheds light on the developmental origins of social preferences by providing mechanisms through which parents transmit preferences for generosity to their children. Then, we conduct a field experiment with nearly 150 3-5 year old children and their parents, measuring (1) whether child and parent generosity is correlated, (2) whether children are influenced by their parents when making sharing decisions and (3) whether parents model generosity to children. We observe no correlation of independently measured parent and child sharing decisions at this young age. Yet, we find that apart from those choosing an equal allocation of resources between themselves and another child, children adjust their behaviors to narrow the gap with their parent's or other adult's choice. We find that fathers, and parents of initially generous children, increase their sharing when informed that their child will be shown their choice. Terms of use: Documents inJEL Classifications: C9, D1, D3

Signaling about Norms: Socialization under Strategic Uncertainty

“…Similarly, Ben‐Ner et al . () report that parents increase their contributions in the dictator game when these will be shown to their children . This audience effect suggests that signaling might play an important role in parent–child socialization.…”

The Effect of Early Education on Social Preferences

“…Early childhood is a period of rapid social preference development and appears to be formative for an individual's social preferences in adulthood (Piaget, 1965;Kohlberg, 1984;Fehr, Bernhard and Rockenbach, 2008;Almås, Cappelen, Sørensen and Tungodden, 2010;Sutter and Kocher, 2007;Sutter, Feri, Kocher, Martinsson, Nordblom and Rützler, 2010;Harbaugh, Krause and Vesterlund, 2007;Bauer, Chytilová and Pertold-Gebicka, 2014;Ben-Ner, List, Putterman and Samek, 2015;Angerer, Glätzle-Rützler, Lergetporer and Sutter, 2015a).…”

Essays on Social Preferences in Children and Adolescents: Experimental Evidence from Colombia and India

“…Based on the results in see Table 3.7, we find that warm-glow motivations of fathers are significant and positively correlated with the degree of warm-glow giving in children. This can be corroborated in other recent empirical studies that observe intergenerational preferences to be positively correlated, particularly with older children (Ben-Ner et al, 2017;Bettinger and Slonim, 2006;Brown et al, 2014;Ottoni Wilhelm et al, 2008). 11 Apart from a strong correlation of altruistic motivations, the father's years of education is positive and significantly correlated to the warm-glow tendencies of the children.…”

“…Particularly in the psychology literature, the role of external circumstances in the form of peer and parental influences has been prominent. Parents, teachers, and peers affect social preferences (Almås et al, 2017;Deckers et al, 2015;Ben-Ner et al, 2017;Ottoni Wilhelm et al, 2008;Banerjee, 2002) and children from households with better socioeconomic conditions display more prosociality (Deckers et al, 2015;Chen et al, 2013;Eisenberg et al, 2006). Similar to those papers, we measure the altruistic preferences of parents and consider the economic conditions of children by comparing the social preferences of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds.…”