Envy and Altruism in Children

Kirsten Häger ()
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Kirsten Häger: School of Economics and Business Administration, Friedrich Schiller University Jena

No 2010-063, Jena Economics Research Papers from Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

Abstract: Envy and altruism have been studied extensively in adults. Here, we report data from an experiment studying envious and altruistic behavior in children. We study a sample of German school children aged seven to ten in a natural setting. We run two treatments. One treatment investigates envy, the other one studies altruism. Additionally, we collect data on the children's cognitive and social skills, and on their socio-demographic background. Controlling for these factors, we find that older children are significantly more altruistic. Boys care more about their relative position than girls. Socio-demographic information have limited predictive power in both treatments.

Keywords: artefactual field experiment; children; envy; altruism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C99 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-09-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jrp:jrpwrp:2010-063

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