Museum of Science, Boston

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Children's Social Reasoning

Some cognitive scientists study children in order to develop a better sense of how children perceive other people and how this might affect their interactions in the social world.

Stickers

Are children generous or selfish?

It is widely believed that children are selfish and have difficulty learning how to share, but is this true? This study examines children's willingness to share with a child they have never met. We hope to learn more about how children ages 3 - 6 learn to be generous.

In this study, children are placed in one of two conditions of the experiment. In one condition, we examine how the value of a “currency” affects children’s decisions--children select their favorite and least favorite stickers from a set of four options. In another condition, we look at how ownership affects children’s decisions--children are either told that all of the stickers belong to them or simply that they have to divide the stickers.

In both conditions, children are told that they can keep all the stickers or give some to a child who will come the next day. We place a box over the stickers and the table so that children have privacy as they divide the stickers into two envelopes: one for them and one for the other child.

In both conditions, children are told that they can keep all the stickers or give some to a child who will come the next day. We place a box over the stickers and the table so that children have privacy as they divide the stickers into two envelopes: one for them and one for the other child.

Our results thus far show children become more likely to give stickers away as they get older, and they are more likely to divide the stickers equally as they approach six years of age. Children of all ages give away more of the stickers they don’t like than the ones that they like. So, while personal preference seems to play a role, ownership seems to have no effect on children's generosity.

This study may help us better understand whether generosity is a learned behavior, or one that comes as a natural part of children’s development.

Learn about other research related to Children's Social Reasoning.

This research is conducted by the Paul Harris Lab at Harvard University

Try it at the Museum

Mag-neato Engineering!

Watch your child build with the Mag-neatos (magnet ball and stick toys) on the second floor of the Discovery Center. When playing, does your child share and trade Mag-neatos with other kids? What types of Mag-neatos does your child share, if any? With whom does your child work as a team?

Try it at Home

Who is nicer?

Put two dolls side by side and place eight stickers or checkers in front of one doll and two stickers or checkers in front of the other. Ask your child who they think is nicer. Does your child favor the "wealthier" doll? What reasons do they give for thinking one doll is nicer than the other?

Are children selectively generous?

Create three stories with your child using six stickers and two dolls as props. Tell your child that the stickers belong to one doll and that the doll is going to share its stickers with the other doll. In one story have the two dolls be strangers, in another story say they are siblings, in a third say the dolls are friends. Have your child decide how many stickers the doll will share in each case. Does your child have the doll share the same amount of stickers in each story? How does the type of relationship between the dolls affect your child’s generosity?