Do Chinese preschoolers follow adults' suggestions? The impact of suggestion fairness and advisor familiarity on preschoolers' sharing behavior.

IF 2.9 3区心理学 Q2 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Frontiers in Psychology Pub Date : 2025-09-26 eCollection Date: 2025-01-01 DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1676175

Chang Chen, Zihan Zha, Ru He, Ying Zhou, Wenjie Zhang

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Abstract

Introduction: While preschoolers' sharing behavior is an important indicator of social development, it remains unclear how adult suggestions influence their sharing decisions.

Methods: This study investigated how suggestion fairness (fair/unfair) and advisor familiarity (familiar/unfamiliar) affect preschoolers' sharing behavior and its relationship with emotional experiences. Two experiments were conducted with 187 preschoolers aged 3-6 years (Experiment 1: n = 124, M = 4.54 years, SD = 1.02; Experiment 2: n = 63, M = 5.50 years, SD = 0.28) using a dictator game paradigm.

Results: Results revealed that despite having a more mature understanding of fairness, 5-6-year-olds were more susceptible to adult suggestions compared to 3-4-year-olds. Older preschoolers were more likely to follow suggestions from familiar advisors while showing less compliance with unfamiliar advisors' suggestions. Additionally, 5-6-year-olds demonstrated greater consistency between fairness judgments and actual sharing behavior, whereas 3-4-year-olds showed a larger cognition-behavior gap. Notably, children who shared more than they deemed fair ("over-sharing") reported experiencing more positive emotions.

Discussion: This study found that both suggestion fairness and advisor familiarity significantly influence preschoolers' sharing decisions, with age-specific patterns in suggestion compliance and emotional experiences.

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中国学龄前儿童会听从大人的建议吗？建议公平性和指导老师熟悉度对学龄前儿童分享行为的影响。

虽然学龄前儿童的分享行为是社会发展的重要指标，但成人的建议如何影响他们的分享决定尚不清楚。方法：研究建议公平（公平/不公平）和指导老师熟悉度（熟悉/不熟悉）对学龄前儿童分享行为的影响及其与情绪体验的关系。采用独裁者游戏范式对187名3 ~ 6岁学龄前儿童（实验1 n = 124, M = 4.54, SD = 1.02；实验2 n = 63, M = 5.50, SD = 0.28）进行两项实验。结果：结果显示，5-6岁儿童虽然对公平的理解更加成熟，但与3-4岁儿童相比，5-6岁儿童更容易受到成人建议的影响。年龄较大的学龄前儿童更有可能遵循熟悉的顾问的建议，而对不熟悉的顾问的建议表现出较少的依从性。此外，5-6岁儿童在公平判断和实际分享行为之间表现出更大的一致性，而3-4岁儿童表现出更大的认知-行为差距。值得注意的是，分享的次数超过他们认为公平的（“过度分享”）的孩子报告说他们经历了更多的积极情绪。讨论：本研究发现，建议公平性和顾问熟悉度都显著影响学龄前儿童的分享决策，并在建议依从性和情感体验方面具有年龄特异性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Frontiers in Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY-

CiteScore

5.30

自引率

13.20%

发文量

7396

审稿时长

14 weeks

期刊介绍： Frontiers in Psychology is the largest journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the psychological sciences, from clinical research to cognitive science, from perception to consciousness, from imaging studies to human factors, and from animal cognition to social psychology. Field Chief Editor Axel Cleeremans at the Free University of Brussels is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide. The journal publishes the best research across the entire field of psychology. Today, psychological science is becoming increasingly important at all levels of society, from the treatment of clinical disorders to our basic understanding of how the mind works. It is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing questions from philosophy, methods from neuroscience and insights from clinical practice - all in the goal of furthering our grasp of human nature and society, as well as our ability to develop new intervention methods.