Abstract
Are selfish impulses less likely to be pursued when decisions are publicly observable? Is the presence of peers a potential solution to social dilemmas? In this paper we report data on the self-control decisions of children aged 6 to 11 who participated in games that require one to resist a selfish impulse for several minutes in order to benefit others. In Public Condition children make decisions in public view of the group of other participants, while in Private Condition they have the possibility to decide privately. We find that children aged 9 and higher are better able to resist selfish impulses in public environments. Younger children, however, display no such effect. Further, we find self-control substantially impacted by group size. When decisions are public, self-control is better in larger groups, while in private condition the opposite holds.
Highlights
Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values–and witnesses. –Franklin P
Since we have a limited number of observations (16 classes) the only statistical difference is between the average waiting time of old and young children in the Public condition
Our analyses provide compelling and robust evidence of significant effects of age, condition, and group size on the ability to resist stopping the game: i) age significantly reduces the probability of stopping the game; ii) being in Private Condition increases the probability of stopping the game; iii) group size has a positive effect -reducing the probability of stopping the game- in Public Condition, but a negative impact -increasing the probability of stopping the game in Private Condition
Summary
Nothing makes it easier to resist temptation than a proper bringing-up, a sound set of values–and witnesses. –Franklin P. This paper investigates the self-control decisions of children aged 6 to 11 in a social dilemma. The advantage to using children of these ages is that we are able to compare decisions of children aged nine years or younger to old children that are typically exhibit full theory of mind related skill [10,11]. In doing this we are able to provide insight on the mechanism underlying any positive impact of public environments. One reason is that older children, as a consequence of their ability to fully employ theory-of-mind reasoning, are more likely to believe that their group members will perceive them negatively if they succumb to a selfish temptation. It follows that children in larger groups may be more likely to succumb to temptation more quickly, and this might be especially true of old children who are better able to engage in strategic reasoning
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