A Study On The Priming Effect Of Money On The Other-Preference Of K-3 Children

Priming means the activation in the mind of a particular concept(or knowledge structure)by past experience or procedure,and the influence of such concept on individual inclination in subsequent unrelated situation is thus referred to as the priming effect.As a kind of priming,money priming is concerned with the unconscious activation of the notion of money in the subjects and examines the impact of idea of money on subsequent tasks.Previous studies have shown that money priming has a negative impact on adult interpersonal communication,yet its impact on that of young children remains unknown and deserves our discussion.The other-preference of children signifies the tendency of children to consider the interests of others,apart from their own,and is manifested mainly in fairness,altruism and sharing behavior.The development of other-preference in children can facilitate their socialization and has a significant function in the establishment of their interpersonal relationship.Then,the question arises whether money priming has a priming effect on children’s other-preference and if so,what specific influence it is.Such is the research subject of this study.The design of study is based on the research by Gasiorowska et al.(2012)and extends it by adding situation variables.In the experiment,140 K-3 children(children from the top class of kindergarten)from three kindergartens in W city,as the research object,were put under different conditions of money priming and required to fulfill the same assignments,so as to examine whether money has a priming effect on children by observing their choices in terms of other-preference in different situations and games.When the presence of the priming effect is proved,the study continues to discuss what influence money priming has on the other-preferences of kindergarten children.Furthermore,different variables,such as situational factors,game type,age,gender and number of siblings,are taken into consideration in terms of their influence on the other-preference of kindergarten children.Results show:1.Money has a priming effect on kindergarten children’s choices of other-preference in pro-social games(in strange situations)and sharing game(in strange situations).Specifically,money priming reduces the other-preference of children in strange situations.Yet,money has no priming effect for kindergarten children’s choices of other-preference in the pro-social games(in familiar situations)and sharing games(the familiar situations),or the effect of money priming on children’s choices of other-preferences in familiar situations is insignificant.2.Situational factor has a salient effect on kindergarten children’s choice of other-preference under the condition of non-money priming,as evidenced by the fact that the children’s other-preference in familiar situations is significantly higher than that in strange situations.Under the money priming condition,it is also found that children exhibit more other-preference in familiar situations than in unfamiliar ones.Meanwhile,money priming strengthens children’s differentiation in treatment of known people and strangers.3.There is no significant effect of game type on the other-preference choices of kindergarten children under either condition of money priming.However,it is found that under the condition of money priming,children tend to show more social preference in the pro-social games when no sacrifice of their own interest is involved.4.Age has a significant effect on the other-preference in the pro-social game(in strange situations)under the condition of non-money priming,and the other-preference increases along with the increase of children’s age.Under the condition of money priming,age,or the combination of age and money priming,is found to have no significant influence on other-preference.Then,gender makes a marginally significant difference to children’s other-preferences in strange conditions under the condition of non-money priming.In pro-social games(in unfamiliar situations)and sharing games(in unfamiliar situations),girls show more social preferences(marginal prominence)than boys do.Under the condition of money priming,the collective effect of gender and money priming on other-preference is investigated and found insignificant.At last,the number of siblings has no influence on children’s other-preference under the condition of non-money priming,nor does it have significant influence on the other-preference under the condition of money priming.