Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Prosocial norms in the classroom: The role of self-regulation in following norms of giving

Blake, Peter ; Piovesan, Marco ; Montinari, Natalia LU ; Warneken, Felix and Gino, Francesca (2015) In Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 115. p.18-29
Abstract
Children who are prosocial in elementary school tend to have higher academic achievement and experience greater acceptance by their peers in adolescence. Despite this positive influence on educational outcomes, it is still unclear why some children are more prosocial than others in school. The current study investigates a possible link between following a prosocial norm and self-regulation. We tested 433 children between 6 and 13 years of age in two variations of the Dictator Game. Children were asked what they should or would give in the game and then played an actual DG. We show that most children hold a common norm for sharing resources, but that some children fail to follow that norm in the actual game. The gap between norm and... (More)
Children who are prosocial in elementary school tend to have higher academic achievement and experience greater acceptance by their peers in adolescence. Despite this positive influence on educational outcomes, it is still unclear why some children are more prosocial than others in school. The current study investigates a possible link between following a prosocial norm and self-regulation. We tested 433 children between 6 and 13 years of age in two variations of the Dictator Game. Children were asked what they should or would give in the game and then played an actual DG. We show that most children hold a common norm for sharing resources, but that some children fail to follow that norm in the actual game. The gap between norm and behavior was correlated with self-regulation skills on a parent-report individual differences measure. Specifically, we show that two components of self-regulation, attention and inhibition, predict children’s ability to follow the stated norm for giving. These results suggest that some children are poorer at holding the norm in mind and following through on enacting it. We discuss the implications of these results for education and programs that promote social and emotional learning (SEL). (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Prosocial norms, Self-regulation, Children
in
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
volume
115
pages
18 - 29
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000357240100003
  • scopus:84941315343
ISSN
0167-2681
DOI
10.1016/j.jebo.2014.10.004
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
48ca769d-0776-4bc3-b030-200d39f0f6c1 (old id 4823818)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:57:19
date last changed
2022-03-06 02:55:19
@article{48ca769d-0776-4bc3-b030-200d39f0f6c1,
  abstract     = {{Children who are prosocial in elementary school tend to have higher academic achievement and experience greater acceptance by their peers in adolescence. Despite this positive influence on educational outcomes, it is still unclear why some children are more prosocial than others in school. The current study investigates a possible link between following a prosocial norm and self-regulation. We tested 433 children between 6 and 13 years of age in two variations of the Dictator Game. Children were asked what they should or would give in the game and then played an actual DG. We show that most children hold a common norm for sharing resources, but that some children fail to follow that norm in the actual game. The gap between norm and behavior was correlated with self-regulation skills on a parent-report individual differences measure. Specifically, we show that two components of self-regulation, attention and inhibition, predict children’s ability to follow the stated norm for giving. These results suggest that some children are poorer at holding the norm in mind and following through on enacting it. We discuss the implications of these results for education and programs that promote social and emotional learning (SEL).}},
  author       = {{Blake, Peter and Piovesan, Marco and Montinari, Natalia and Warneken, Felix and Gino, Francesca}},
  issn         = {{0167-2681}},
  keywords     = {{Prosocial norms; Self-regulation; Children}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{18--29}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization}},
  title        = {{Prosocial norms in the classroom: The role of self-regulation in following norms of giving}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2014.10.004}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.jebo.2014.10.004}},
  volume       = {{115}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}