Psychological Development and Education ›› 2010, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (4): 378-383.

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The Development of Children’s Trust in Economic Games

ZHENG Pu1, YU Guo-liang1, ZHENG You-fu2   

  1. 1. Institute of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872;
    2. College of Teacher Education, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou 325000
  • Online:2010-07-15 Published:2010-07-15

Abstract: Using the Trust Game task to examine children's trust development in economic activities,subjects were 242 children from 3rd grade to 6th grade.The result revealed that:(1)The offers of children decreased significantly from 3rd grade to 4th grade,then raised again in 6th grade.(2)In group-representation context,children offered much more than in individual context,these result apparently differed from previous studies.(3)Children's offers has obvious gender difference,boy offered more than girls. The results are interpreted as follows.As they grew older,children's trust motive possibly shifted from fairness to selfish then finally to cooperation.Due to the immature sense of responsibility and the motive to behavior more selfless than others,children trusted more when they were on behalf of a group.Children have already developed gender difference in economic activities,boys exhibit greater trust than girls did while girls displayed a high degree of risk aversion.

Key words: economic game, trust game, trust, children

CLC Number: 

  • B844.1
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