CeDEx workshop - Keith Jensen (University of Manchester)

Games for Kids - The Development of Other-Regarding Preferences

The fact that humans engage in prosocial acts, small and large, with complete strangers, is an evolutionary anomaly. It appears to be the case that our closest living relatives do not exhibit other-regarding preferences. To understand how concern for the welfare of others and a sense of fairness have evolved in humans, it is valuable to see how these emerge developmentally. To address this question, economic experiments such as the mini-ultimatum game with theft, chicken in groups and the moonlighting game have been adapted to be comprehensible to children as young as five-years-of age. Results are still preliminary as studies are still ongoing; the emphasis of this talk will be on how children can be tested and what we can hope to learn from them. Chimpanzees will be thrown into the mix to contrast with children.