Models, Norms and Sharing

Abstract

Third and fifth grade children were exposed to a model who either shared with them, gave to a mental health charity or refused to share. Their subsequent sharing with the model, mental health, or a Toys for Tots charity or their refusal to share was observed, along with their answers to a questionnaire designed to assess the salience of a norm of altruism for them. Both specific and generalized imitation of altruism was found, and salience of sharing appeared to be strongly related to actual sharing and weakly related to experimental conditions.