Cowell Jason M, Samek Anya, List John, Decety Jean
Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
Department of Consumer Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 Feb 6;10(2):e0117947. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117947. eCollection 2015.
Young children have long been known to act selfishly and gradually appear to become more generous across middle childhood. While this apparent change has been well documented, the underlying mechanisms supporting this remain unclear. The current study examined the role of early theory of mind and executive functioning in facilitating sharing in a large sample (N = 98) of preschoolers. Results reveal a curious relation between early false-belief understanding and sharing behavior. Contrary to many commonsense notions and predominant theories, competence in this ability is actually related to less sharing. Thus, the relation between developing theory of mind and sharing may not be as straightforward as it seems in preschool age children. It is precisely the children who can engage in theory of mind that decide to share less with others.
长期以来，人们都知道幼儿行为自私，而在童年中期，他们似乎会逐渐变得更加慷慨。虽然这种明显的变化已有充分记录，但支持这一变化的潜在机制仍不清楚。当前的研究在一个由大量学龄前儿童组成的样本（N = 98）中，考察了早期心理理论和执行功能在促进分享行为方面所起的作用。结果揭示了早期错误信念理解与分享行为之间一种奇特的关系。与许多常识观念和主流理论相反，这种能力方面的表现实际上与较少的分享行为有关。因此，心理理论发展与分享行为之间的关系在学龄前儿童中可能不像看起来那么直接。恰恰是那些能够运用心理理论的孩子决定与他人分享得更少。
