Development of Prosocial Behavior in Children

Student: Vertyanova Polina

Faculty: St.Petersburg School of Economics and Management

Educational Programme: Economics (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2021

The study contributes to the expanding body of literature examining particular qualities of prosociality in children by investigating the question of how the individual choice of a child in a role of the dictator in a prosociality game can be affected by their peers’ behavior. We also study children's perception of their classmates’ prosociality. Our subjects are 7-10 year old students of several Saint-Petersburg public elementary schools. With the help of an experiment, conducted in the form of a dictator game, we aim to see how the information about other players’ decisions will influence individual prosocial preferences. We predict a high social influence effect, suggesting that children will adjust their answers in accordance with the previous player.

Student Theses at HSE must be completed in accordance with the University Rules and regulations specified by each educational programme.

Summaries of all theses must be published and made freely available on the HSE website.

The full text of a thesis can be published in open access on the HSE website only if the authoring student (copyright holder) agrees, or, if the thesis was written by a team of students, if all the co-authors (copyright holders) agree. After a thesis is published on the HSE website, it obtains the status of an online publication.

Student theses are objects of copyright and their use is subject to limitations in accordance with the Russian Federation’s law on intellectual property.

In the event that a thesis is quoted or otherwise used, reference to the author’s name and the source of quotation is required.

Search all student theses