Physiological and social determinants of children's sharing behavior

On the group level the children chose the prosocial option more frequently when they were paired with another child than in a non-social control situation, where they played the game alone. However, there were also differences between the children. Children that had few interaction partners and therefore not a very high status in the social group had a tendency to share more and children with particularly high levels of prenatal testosterone shared significantly less. If one considers withholding resources from others as a competitive, masculine strategy and sharing as a cooperative, more feminine strategy, these results are a further piece of evidence for the "masculinisation effect" of prenatal testosterone. Surprisingly, whether children were paired with a friend or a child that neither of them had nominated as a friend had no effect on their propensity to share.

"Our results show that primary school children already have a strong inclination to benefit others. At the same time, their behaviour is influenced by their position in the social group. Here, it would be interesting to know whether the same factors also influenced younger children in a similar way. We are currently investigating this question with follow-up studies," concludes Horn.