The Influence Of Social Norms And Social Power On Young Children’s Sharing Behavior

Sharing is the act of an individual taking out an item they own for others to share for the benefit of others.Children’s sharing behavior is mainly affected by two factors:context and cognition.First,social norms are important situational factors that influence children’s sharing behavior.Second,social power perception is considered to be an important cognitive factor affecting children’s sharing behavior,and previous studies on the relationship between social norms and sharing behavior have not achieved consistent results,but there are still no researchers who can explain the reason for this difference,and social power perception may affect the relationship between social norms and sharing behavior.Therefore,Experiment 1 examines children’s sharing behavior to strange third parties under different social norm types and sources,and Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 examine children’s sharing behavior and expectations to different social power holders under different social norm types and sources,focusing on the impact of social norm types and sources on children’s sharing behavior and expectations under different social normative types.In this study,a total of 432 children aged 3-6 years old were selected from 6kindergartens in Panjin,Shanghai and Wuxi,and four conditions were presented to children according to the source and type of norms: intra-group descriptive norms,intra-group imperative norms,out-group descriptive norms,and out-group imperative norms,and asked whether the participants would share stickers with unfamiliar third parties;On the basis of experiment 1,experiment 2 gave different social powers to the sharers,and examined whether the participants shared stickers to different social power individuals;Experiment 3 examines participants’ expectations that individuals with different social powers will share.All three experiments used the dictator’s play paradigm to test children’s sharing behavior.This study yielded the following conclusions:(1)When sharing with unfamiliar third parties,the normative type can predict the sharing behavior of young children,and children under descriptive normative conditions in the group are more willing to share,and the most common reason mentioned by children willing to share is the shared factor.(2)When participants shared with people with low social power,participants who accepted norms from outside the group were more willing to share,and the most common reason mentioned by participants willing to share was prosocial reasons.(3)When the participants expected the sharing behavior of people with high social power,the participants who accepted the norms within the group were more willing to share,and the participants who were willing to share mentioned the most relevant reasons reflecting the nature of sharing.(4)The children’s own sharing behavior towards different social power holders is inconsistent with their expectations for the sharing behavior of different social power holders.