Middle childhood is a phase when reputations matter. The study explores how 8- to 12-year-olds weigh a generous act that harms a peer’s standing, finding that kids judge the giver more harshly and are less inclined to want them as a friend. The effect held regardless of whether the harmed peer was a friend or a stranger, and similar patterns appeared in adults. These results show that children attend to consequences beyond the material exchange; they are sensitive to how actions shape group dynamics and social reputations.
If we care about nurturing prosocial behavior that strengthens rather than fractures relationships, we need to understand these social calculations. The research opens questions about how to teach generosity that protects others’ dignity and promotes inclusive group norms. Follow the link to read the full study and see how these findings could influence classrooms, parenting, and programs that aim to build empathetic, socially aware kids.
Abstract
Generosity is widely regarded as one of the most praiseworthy virtues. However, when individuals engage in generous acts, such behavior can sometimes lead to unintended consequences, such as overshadowing the reputations of others. Across two studies (N = 512), we examined how 8- to 12-year-old children and adults evaluate generous sharing when it undermines a peer’s reputation, and whether this evaluation is moderated by the social relationship between the individuals involved. Participants were presented with a vignette in which an actor shared more than a peer—who was either a friend or a stranger—resulting in the peer’s reputation being either harmed or not. Results showed that children evaluated the actor’s sharing more negatively and were less willing to befriend with the actor when it harmed the peer’s reputation compared to when it did not, and this effect was not influenced by the social relationship between the actor and the peer (Study 1a). Further studies, which modified the materials and included a larger sample encompassing adults, consistently found that social relationship did not affect children’s or adults’ evaluations of reputation-harming sharing (Studies 1b and 2). The findings demonstrate that children in middle childhood evaluate sharing behavior with attention not only to the act’s generosity, but also to the broader social implications it may carry.
