The development of social strategic ignorance and other regarding behavior from childhood to adulthood

Isabelle Brocas and Juan D. Carrillo

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), 2020, vol. 85, issue C

Abstract: We conduct a dictator experiment with children (7–16 years old) and adults to study the development of the underlying motivations for other-regarding behavior. Prior to choosing the sharing rule, our participants can manipulate their access to information and remain strategically ignorant of the payoffs associated with some or all of the alternatives. We find that information avoidance is infrequent (11.2% of the trials) and occurs for two opposite motives: some participants –mostly adults– look only at their payoffs and maximize them whereas some other participants –mostly school age children– look only at the other person’s payoffs and maximize them. Among fully informed participants, sharing depends on age but it is also nuanced by the opportunity cost of giving.

Keywords: Field experiment; Developmental decision making; Strategic ignorance; Other regarding preferences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:soceco:v:85:y:2020:i:c:s2214804319304252

DOI: 10.1016/j.socec.2020.101524

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