Friendship status and recipient’s emotions both affect children’s sharing behavior

Studies on the development of sharing resources as one aspect of prosocial behavior have revealed that single recipient characteristics affect preschoolers' sharing decisions. In the current study, we investigated (a) whether preschoolers also take multiple recipient characteristics simultaneously into account and (b) whether preschoolers' general prosocial behavior affects their sharing decisions. A 2 (Friendship Status: friend vs. non-friend) × 2 (Emotional State of the Recipient: sad vs. happy) within-participants design was used. In the context of a dictator game, German preschoolers (N = 82; age range = 4.5-7.0 years) were provided with 6 stickers per trial that they could share with another fictitious child. The other child was introduced as either a friend or a non-friend who was either sad or happy. The number of shared stickers served as the dependent variable. In addition, preschoolers' general prosocial behavior was assessed, also including comforting and helping. Results showed that preschoolers shared more stickers with friends than with non-friends and shared more with sad recipients than with happy recipients. There was no significant interaction between these factors. Furthermore, preschoolers' general prosocial behavior did not predict their sharing decisions. This study suggests that preschoolers take multiple recipient characteristics simultaneously into account when sharing resources and that sharing resources might differ from other aspects of prosocial behavior.