How differences in relatesness affects children’s altruistic behavior across age

The ability to exhibit altruistic behaviors is considered as one feature that distinguishes
humans from other species Haviland et al. 2004. A recent surge of studies regarding children’s
altruistic behavior has emerged. Benenson et al. 2007 used a Dictator Game to test 4-, 6-, and 9-
year old’s altruistic behavior towards a classmate and found that even the youngest children
behaved altruistically some of the time. Moore 2009 tested differences in children’s altruistic
behavior using group membership and found that giving depended on group membership. These
findings may have been skewed by the presence of the researcher Fehr, Bernhard, &
Rockenbach, 2008. This study seeks to replicate the findings of Moore 2009 while using a
modified Dictator’s Game and an anonymous design in order to measure 3, 4, 5, and 6-year-old
children’s altruistic giving without the influence of a researcher. We found that a significant
percentage of children did not donate any stickers to any recipient, suggesting that young
children are not as altruistic as they are portrayed. We also found that, amongst those that did
donate, in-group received more than out-group members, but not as much as a genetic relative.