The development of egalitarianism, altruism, spite and parochialism in childhood and adolescence

•We study other-regarding preferences of 717 subjects, aged 8-17 years.•Subjects can be classified as spiteful, egalitarian or altruistic.•Spitefulness and egalitarianism decrease with age, altruism increases.•Females are more egalitarian than males.•There is a strong in-group/out-group divide in behavior.

We study how the distribution of other-regarding preferences develops with age. Based on a set of allocation choices, we classify each of 717 subjects, aged 8-17 years, as either egalitarian, altruistic, or spiteful. We find a strong decrease in spitefulness with increasing age. Egalitarianism becomes less frequent, and altruism much more prominent, with age. Females are more frequently classified as egalitarian than males, and less often as altruistic. By varying the allocation recipient as either an in-group or an out-group member, we also study how parochialism develops with age. Parochialism emerges significantly in the teenage years.