Elisabeth Bügelmayer (SOEP and FU Berlin)
C. Katharina Spieß (SOEP and FU Berlin)
Although spiteful preferences play a crucial role in the development of human large scale cooperation, there is little evidence on spiteful behavior and its determinants in children. We investigate the relationship between children’s cognitive skills and spiteful behavior in a sample of 214 preschoolers aged 5-6 and their mothers. Other-regarding behavior of both mothers and children is elicited by four simple allocation decisions. A key advantage of our study is that it is carried out in a household context. Therefore, we have extensive information about the child’s and mother’s cognitive and noncognitive skills, health and household characteristics. We find that higher cognitive skills are associated with more spiteful behavior in children. This relationship is even more pronounced among boys and hence possibly reflecting differences in competitiveness. These results shed light on the determinants of the development of other-regarding preferences in humans.