An emerging body of literature has documented the negative implications high economic inequality can have on children's social and cognitive development. However, little experimental research has directly addressed how wealth discrepancies impact the way children treat others. The current study thus aimed to address the implications of economic inequality on prosocial decision‐making in children prior to commencing formal schooling. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we immersed 4‐year‐old children (N = 58) in a series of games where they played against puppets for rewards. During this process, children were exposed to resource allocations featuring either high inequality or low inequality. We subsequently measured children's donation behaviour, resource division behaviour, and fairness perceptions. As predicted, children were less altruistic when exposed to high inequality compared to low inequality. Contrary to predictions, there was no difference in resource division behaviour or fairness perceptions. This study documents for the first time that exposure to environmental inequality, even if brief and in a controlled experimental setting, can influence young children's prosocial decision‐making.

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经济不平等对幼儿亲社会决策的影响

一个新兴的文献记录了高度的经济不平等可能对儿童的社会和认知发展产生的负面影响。然而，很少有实验研究直接解决财富差异如何影响儿童对待他人的方式。因此，目前的研究旨在解决经济不平等对儿童开始正规学校教育前亲社会决策的影响。使用一种新的实验范式，我们让 4 岁的儿童（N = 58）在一系列游戏中，他们与木偶对战以获得奖励。在这个过程中，儿童面临着高度不平等或低不平等的资源分配。我们随后测量了儿童的捐赠行为、资源分配行为和公平感。正如预测的那样，与低不平等相比，儿童在面临高不平等时不那么利他。与预测相反，资源分配行为或公平感知没有差异。这项研究首次记录了环境不平等的暴露，即使是短暂的和受控的实验环境，也会影响幼儿的亲社会决策。