Development of Pro-social Behavior: Equity Preference
Evolutionary Account
• Pro-social behaviors allowed humans to cohabitate in large groups
• Higher social cognition also important for large group cohabitation
• Co-evolution of pro-social behaviors and social cognition
Pro-social Behavior
• Helping – Instrumental – Informative – Comforting
• Sharing – Equitable vs. self-maximizing
Game Theory
• Prediction of individual behavior in group settings
• Recently applied to developmental psychology
• Dictator game, ultimatum game, public goods game and prisoner’s dilemma
Sharing
• Sharing valued resources
• What factors influence sharing behavior
• Altruism, fairness and social learning: a cross-cultural approach to imitative altruism (Blake, Callaghan, Corbit, Warneken, 2012)
Equity
• Preference for equity
• Where does this preference come from?
• Innate
• Socialized
Blake and McAuliffe (2011)
• Do children still prefer equity when it comes at a cost?
Results
• 4-7 year olds accept advantageous offers but reject disadvantageous ones
• 8 year olds reject both forms of inequity
• Equal distributions are almost universally accepted
Cross-Cultural Value
• Strong equity preference emerges around 8 year in N.A. sample
• This supports a socialization account
• Important to look at cultures with different socialization practices
India and Peru
• Individual vs. collectivist cultures
• Prediction for the effect of collectivism on equity preference