Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2019 Jul 24;286(1907):20190822. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0822.
Mutually beneficial interactions often require trust that others will reciprocate. Such interpersonal trust is foundational to evolutionarily unique aspects of human social behaviour, such as economic exchange. In adults, interpersonal trust is often assessed using the 'trust game', in which a lender invests resources in a trustee who may or may not repay the loan. This game captures two crucial elements of economic exchange: the potential for greater mutual benefits by trusting in others, and the moral hazard that others may betray that trust. While adults across cultures can trust others, little is known about the developmental origins of this crucial cooperative ability. We developed the first version of the trust game for use with young children that addresses these two components of trust. Across three experiments, we demonstrate that 4- and 6-year-olds recognize opportunities to invest in others, sharing more when reciprocation is possible than in a context measuring pure generosity. Yet, children become better with age at investing in trustworthy over untrustworthy partners, indicating that this cooperative skill emerges later in ontogeny. Together, our results indicate that young children can engage in complex economic exchanges involving judgements about interpersonal trust and show increasing sensitivity to appropriate partners over development.
互利互动通常需要信任他人会回报。这种人际信任是人类社会行为中独特的进化方面的基础，例如经济交换。在成年人中，人际信任通常使用“信任游戏”来评估，在这种游戏中，贷款人将资源投资于受托人，受托人可能会也可能不会偿还贷款。这个游戏捕捉到了经济交换的两个关键要素：信任他人可以带来更大的共同利益的潜力，以及他人可能背叛这种信任的道德风险。虽然来自不同文化的成年人可以信任他人，但对于这种关键合作能力的发展起源知之甚少。我们开发了第一个用于幼儿的信任游戏版本，该版本解决了信任的这两个组成部分。在三个实验中，我们证明了 4 岁和 6 岁的儿童认识到有机会投资他人，在互惠的情况下比在单纯衡量慷慨的情况下分享更多。然而，随着年龄的增长，儿童在有信任的伙伴和不可信任的伙伴之间的投资能力会越来越好，这表明这种合作技能在个体发育过程中出现得较晚。总之，我们的结果表明，幼儿可以参与涉及人际信任判断的复杂经济交换，并在发展过程中对合适的伙伴表现出越来越高的敏感性。
