Presenting: Costly sharing and moral cognition in middle childhood
Abstract: In-group biases are evident in children’s prosocial behavior and resource allocation decisions from a young age. However, middle childhood is also a critical time for the development of egalitarian concerns, which often conflict with desires to favor the in-group. The current study examines this trade-off in 7- to 9- year-old children’s costly sharing decisions with same-race and different-race recipients. A sophisticated version of a dictator game that can assess both numerical and quality equality was used to compare the competing desire to endorse equality and to maximize group welfare. Additionally, electroencephalography was recorded to quantify racial biases in empathetic responding towards same-race and different-race faces with varied emotional expressions. All children endorsed numerical equality, but only older children displayed quality equality in the sharing tasks. Although older children demonstrated a decrease in racial biases in costly sharing, they showed an increase in racial biases in empathetic responding. These results highlight a gap between biases in empathy and actual sharing behavior, which adds insight into the underlying processes implicated in children’s resource allocation decisions. The decision to endorse equality appears to be removed from affective racial biases in middle childhood.