Journal article
‘She is looking at me! Shall I share?’ How Chinese and American preschoolers respond to eye gaze during sharing
Social development (Oxford, England), Vol.27(2), pp.447-460
05/2018
DOI: 10.1111/sode.12278
Abstract
Previous research shows that the recipient's verbal communication about desires increases young children's sharing behavior. The current study examined how an adult partner's non‐verbal communication through eye gaze influenced sharing behavior in children from different cultures. We presented one hundred forty‐six 3‐ to 5‐year‐old American and Chinese children with a Dictator Game, in which they were asked to distribute resources between themselves and an experimenter. Children were randomly assigned to three conditions, in which the experimenter alternated her gaze between the child and the items that she wanted, or looked randomly around the room, or left when the child made decisions about sharing but claimed to come back later. Results showed that Chinese children shared more than American children did in the alternating‐gaze condition, but not in the other two conditions; furthermore, the experimenter's alternating gaze influenced Chinese children to be more generous, but had no significant effect on American children. This suggests that compared to American children, Chinese children may be more compliant with others’ requests communicated through a subtle cue of eye gaze. The study demonstrates important differences in sharing behaviors between American and Chinese preschoolers, and these differences are consistent with the cultural constructs of individualism and collectivism.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- ‘She is looking at me! Shall I share?’ How Chinese and American preschoolers respond to eye gaze during sharing
- Creators
- Zhen Wu - Tsinghua UniversityXi Chen - Peking UniversityJulie Gros‐Louis - University of IowaYanjie Su - Peking University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Social development (Oxford, England), Vol.27(2), pp.447-460
- DOI
- 10.1111/sode.12278
- ISSN
- 0961-205X
- eISSN
- 1467-9507
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- National Science Foundation (NSF‐SBE 1323285) Lab for Lifelong Learning at Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University Tang Scholar Program National Natural Science Foundation of China (31600899 ; 31571134)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2018
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984002459602771
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