Tasimi Arber, Dominguez Amy, Wynn Karen
Department of Psychology, Yale University , New Haven, CT, USA.
Front Psychol. 2015 Jul 21;6:1036. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01036. eCollection 2015.
Generosity is greatly valued and admired, but can it sometimes be unappealing? The current study investigated 8- to 10-year-old children's (N = 128) preference for generous individuals, and the effects of social comparison on their preferences. In Experiment 1, children showed a strong preference for a generous to a stingy child; however, this preference was significantly reduced in a situation that afforded children a comparison of their own (lesser) generosity to that of another child. In Experiment 2, children's liking for a generous individual was not reduced when that individual was an adult, suggesting that similarity in age influences whether a child engages in social comparison. These findings indicate that, by middle childhood, coming up short in comparison with a peer can decrease one's liking for a generous individual.
慷慨非常受重视和赞赏，但它有时会不那么吸引人吗？当前的研究调查了8至10岁儿童（N = 128）对慷慨之人的偏好，以及社会比较对他们偏好的影响。在实验1中，孩子们强烈偏好慷慨的孩子而非吝啬的孩子；然而，在一种能让孩子们将自己（较少的）慷慨程度与另一个孩子的慷慨程度进行比较的情境中，这种偏好显著降低。在实验2中，当慷慨的个体是成年人时，孩子们对他的喜爱并没有减少，这表明年龄相似性会影响孩子是否会进行社会比较。这些发现表明，到童年中期，与同龄人相比表现欠佳会降低一个人对慷慨个体的喜爱。
