Neighborhood Deprivation Negatively Impacts Children's Prosocial Behavior.

Front Psychol. 2016 Nov 14;7:1760. eCollection 2016.

Safra L¹, Tecu T², Lambert S³, Sheskin M³, Baumard N³, Chevallier C¹.

Author information

• ¹Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives, INSERM U960, Département d'Études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure - PSL Research University Paris, France.
• ²Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest Bucharest, Romania.
• ³Institut Jean-Nicod, CNRS UMR8129, Département d'Études Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure - PSL Research University Paris, France.

Abstract

Children show stronger cooperative behavior in experimental settings as they get older, but little is known about how the environment of a child shapes this development. In adults, prosocial behavior toward strangers is markedly decreased in low socio-economic status (SES) neighborhoods, suggesting that environmental harshness has a negative impact on some prosocial behaviors. Similar results have been obtained with 9-year-olds recruited from low vs. high SES schools. In the current study, we investigate whether these findings generalize to a younger age group and a developing country. Specifically, we worked with a sample of thirty-nine 6- to 7-year-olds in two neighborhoods in a single city in Romania. Using a "Quality Dictator Game" that offers greater resolution than previous measures, we find that children living in the harsher neighborhood behave less prosocially toward a stranger than children living in the less harsh neighborhood.

KEYWORDS:

SES; behavioral ecology; deprivation; dictator game; poverty; prosociality