Abstract
Inhibitory control may play an important part in prosocial behavior, such as donating behavior. However, it is not clear at what developmental stage inhibitory control becomes associated with donating behavior and which aspects of inhibitory control are related to donating behavior during development in early to middle childhood. The present study aimed to clarify these issues with two experiments. In Experiment 1, 103 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers completed cool (Stroop-like) and hot (delay of gratification) inhibitory control tasks and a donating task. The results indicated that there were no relationships between cool or hot inhibitory control and donating behavior in the whole group and each age group of the preschoolers. In Experiment 2, 140 elementary school children in Grades 2, 4, and 6 completed cool (Stroop-like) and hot (delay of gratification) inhibitory control tasks and a donating task. The results showed that inhibitory control was positively associated with donating behavior in the whole group. Cool and hot inhibitory control respectively predicted donating behavior in the second and sixth graders. Therefore, the present study reveals that donating behavior increasingly relies on specific inhibitory control, i.e., hot inhibitory control as children grow in middle childhood.
Highlights
Prosocial behavior refers to voluntary behavior that benefits other people (Eisenberg et al, 2010)
Because our pilot study indicated that cartoon pens were attractive for elementary school children, the children were given opportunities to donate cartoon pens in the donating task
The results found that donating behavior was limited in early childhood but increased significantly in middle childhood
Summary
Prosocial behavior refers to voluntary behavior that benefits other people (Eisenberg et al, 2010). Ongley et al (2014) distinguished two types of prosocial behavior, i.e., sharing and donating behavior. The dictator game (Gummerum et al, 2010) measures sharing behavior and involves allocating one’s own items to anonymous recipients in one interaction. Ongley et al (2014) considered sharing behavior in that situation to be costly, anonymous and unreciprocated. These authors noted that donating behavior was likewise costly, anonymous and unreciprocated but was obviously different from sharing behavior. Donating behavior involves allocating items to recipients who need the items. Donating behavior reflects caring about disadvantaged groups and has important significance for prosocial development. The present study focused on children’s donating behavior
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