Allocation of resources to collaborators and free-riders in 3-year-olds

Recent studies have shown that in situations where resources have been acquired collaboratively, children at around 3 years of age share mostly equally. We investigated 3-year-olds’ sharing behavior with a collaborating partner and a free-riding partner who explicitly expressed her preference not to collaborate. Children shared more equally with the collaborating partner than with the free rider. These results suggest that young children are sensitive to the contributions made by others to a collaborative effort (and possibly their reasons for not collaborating) and distribute resources accordingly.

► Children at around 3 years of age share mostly equally when resources have been acquired collaboratively.
► We measured 3-year-olds’ sharing behavior with a partner who had contributed to obtain the resources.
► We measured the sharing behavior of another group of 3-year-olds’ with a partner who explicitly expressed her preference not to collaborate but then wanted part of the resources.
► Children shared more equally after collaboration than when the partner did not collaborate.
► Children share equally with collaborating partners and less equally with free-riders.