Racial Recipients, Value of Donations, and Sharing Behavior in Children

Children’s helping behavior in an ethnic intergroup context: Evidence for outgroup helping.

“…To our knowledge, only one study reported an out-group bias in children’s prosocial behavior, showing that White children preferred to share more with Indian and Black recipients compared with White recipients (Zinser et al, 1976). Children have also been found to intend to help national out-group peers more than in-group peers in a high need private helping context (Sierksma et al, 2014b).…”

“…However, when 2.5- to 3-year-old children were asked to give away a toy, they did not differentiate between ethnic in-group and out-group adults (Kinzler & Spelke, 2011). In contrast, one older study involving preschoolers and second and third graders found that older children shared more with Black and Indian recipients compared to a White recipient, whereas younger children did not differentiate (Zinser, Perry, Bailey, & Lydiatt, 1976). In sum, these studies suggest that children sometimes show in-group bias in their sharing but that this might depend on their age, and how group membership is communicated to them (i.e., language vs. visual information).…”

Sharing Behavior: Effect of Denomination Value and Number

“…The relationship between value of donation and sharing behavior in children has received very little attention (2,4,8,9). The few studies that do exist yield conflicting results.…”

“…The few studies that do exist yield conflicting results. Wright (7) found that second and third graders given two toys share as well as donate the preferred toy (high value) more often than the less preferred toy (low value) with a stranger Zinzer, Perry, Bailey, and Lydiatt (9) investigating developmental trends in preschoolers and school-age children (second and third grade) found the opposite results. Children, regardless of their age, donated significantly more units of a less preferred object (green candy) than of a more preferred object (bubble gum) when given 17 units of each.…”

To share or not to share? Explaining willingness to share in the context of social distance

“…There are, however, some conflicting results regarding the effect of social distance on prosocial behaviour. Zinser, Perry, Bailey, and Lydiatt (), for instance, found that white school‐age children donate more to black and indian recipients than to white recipients. This shows that they donated to individuals who do not belong to their racial group and can therefore be considered more socially distant.…”