The Development of Theory of Mind and Positive and Negative Reciprocity in Preschool Children

This study examined the relation between the acquisition of false-beliefs theory of mind (ToM) and reciprocity in preschoolers. Preschool-aged children completed a task assessing the understanding of false beliefs, and played an Ultimatum Game (UG) with another child in a face-to-face setting. Negative reciprocity was assessed by examining the rejection of unfair offers made by another child in the UG, while positive reciprocity was assessed by examining allocations made by participants in a Dictator Game (DG) following the UG. The results indicated that children who had passed a task assessing first-order false beliefs were more likely to make generous offers in a DG following a fair offer made by their partner in a proceeding UG, but that false beliefs ToM was unrelated to the rejection of unfair offers in the UG

The development of the effect of peer monitoring on generosity differs among elementary school-age boys and girls

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of peer monitoring on generosity in boys and girls aged 6-12 years. A total of 120 elementary school students played a one-shot dictator game (DG) with and without peer monitoring by classmates. Children decided how to divide 10 chocolates between themselves and a classmate either in a condition in which their allocations were visible to their peers, or in private. While the effect of peer monitoring on the allocation amount in the DG was clearly present in boys, it was not observed in girls. Furthermore, the effect of peer monitoring in boys appeared at the age of 9 years. These results suggest that the motivation to draw peers\u27 attention plays a stronger role for older boys than for girls or younger boys. The potential roles of higher-order theory of mind, social roles, and emergence of secondary sex characteristics on the influence of peer monitoring on generosity shown by boys are discussed

The Role of Cognitive and Emotional Perspective Taking in Economic Decision Making in the Ultimatum Game

We conducted a simple resource allocation game known as the ultimatum game (UG) with preschoolers to examine the role of cognitive and emotional perspective-taking ability on allocation and rejection behavior. A total of 146 preschoolers played the UG and completed a false belief task and an emotional perspective-taking test. Results showed that cognitive perspective taking ability had a significant positive effect on the proposer\u27s offer and a negative effect on the responder\u27s rejection behavior, whereas emotional perspective taking ability did not impact either the proposer\u27s or responder\u27s behavior. These results imply that the ability to anticipate the responder\u27s beliefs, but not their emotional state, plays an important role in the proposer\u27s choice of a fair allocation in an UG, and that children who have not acquired theory of mind still reject unfair offers

Relationship between Salivary Oxytocin Levels and Generosity in Preschoolers

This study examined the association between salivary oxytocin (sOT) levels and generosity in preschoolers. Fifty preschoolers played two dictator games (DG) by deciding how to allocate 10 chocolates between themselves and another child, who was either from the same class as the participant (ingroup member), or an unknown child from another class (outgroup member). sOT levels were assessed in saliva collected from the children immediately prior to the DG tasks. While sOT levels were negatively associated with allocations made to both ingroup and outgroup members by boys, among girl sOT levels were positively related to allocations made to ingroup members, and unrelated to allocations made to outgroup members. These results suggest sex differences in the association between salivary oxytocin and generosity

The relationship between child maltreatment and emotion recognition.

Child abuse and neglect affect the development of social cognition in children and inhibit social adjustment. The purpose of this study was to compare the ability to identify the emotional states of others between abused and non-abused children. The participants, 129 children (44 abused and 85 non-abused children), completed a children's version of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). Results showed that the mean accuracy rate on the RMET for abused children was significantly lower than the rate of the non-abused children. In addition, the accuracy rates for positive emotion items (e.g., hoping, interested, happy) were significantly lower for the abused children, but negative emotion and neutral items were not different across the groups. This study found a negative relationship between child abuse and the ability to understand others' emotions, especially positive emotions

Participant characteristics.

<p>Notes: ^aAQ: Autism Quotient, Japanese version;</p><p>^bχ² test for gender, t-tests for all others.</p

Classification of RMET items by emotional valence.

<p>Classification of RMET items by emotional valence.</p

Theory of mind enhances preference for fairness

The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of theory of mind in fairness-related behavior in pre-school children and to introduce a tool for examining fairness-related behavior in children. A total of sixty-eight preschoolers played the Ultimatum Game in a face-to-face setting. Acquisition of theory of mind was defined as the understanding of false-beliefs using the Sally-Anne task (Baron-Cohen et al., 1985). The results showed that preschoolers who had acquired theory of mind proposed higher mean offers than children who had not. These findings imply that the ability to infer the mental states of others plays an important role in fairness-related behavior