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Reciprocity in young children

Author

Listed:
  • Dahlman, Sandra

    (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics)

  • Ljungqvist, Pontus

    (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics)

  • Johannesson, Magnus

    (Dept. of Economics, Stockholm School of Economics)

Abstract

Reciprocal behavior, the rewarding of kind acts and the punishment of unkind acts, is relatively well established among adults. We test if reciprocal behavior exists already among children 3-8 years old. Three simple anonymous allocation games are conducted with 242 children. In a first stage, half of the children decide whether to give a bag of raisin to another anonymous child or not. The three games differ in terms of the cost of giving and the relative difference in payoffs. In a second stage the roles are reversed between the two children to test for reciprocal behavior. We find reciprocal behavior in all three games with highly significant effects for two of the three games. Furthermore, the degree of reciprocity tends to increase with age. The effect of reciprocity is not significant among 3-5 year old children, whereas the effect is highly significant in all three games for 6-8 year olds.

Suggested Citation

  • Dahlman, Sandra & Ljungqvist, Pontus & Johannesson, Magnus, 2007. "Reciprocity in young children," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 674, Stockholm School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:hastef:0674
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Kirsten Häger, 2010. "Envy and Altruism in Children," Jena Economics Research Papers 2010-063, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    2. Martin G. Kocher, 2015. "How Trust in Social Dilemmas Evolves with Age," CESifo Working Paper Series 5447, CESifo.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Reciprocity; prosociality; children; experiments;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C90 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - General
    • D64 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Altruism; Philanthropy; Intergenerational Transfers
    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth

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