Effects Of Ego-depletion On Children’s Fair Behavior

Fairness is the core of morality,the symbol of human civilization and the goal of unremitting pursuit.The research on children’s fair behavior has always been the focus of developmental psychologists.The paradigm of dictator game and ultimatum game provides a method for the study of children’s fair behavior.It is generally believed that the fair behavior in the dictator’s game reflects the fairness preference,while the fair behavior in the ultimatum game reflects the fairness preference and the fairness strategy.Studies found that children’s fairness preference and the fairness strategy behavior both increased steadily with age,but in the middle and late childhood,children’s fair behavior has the tendency of weakening.In view of this "abnormal" phenomenon,this study selected children in the upper grades of primary school and studied their fair behavior and internal mechanism with the help of different game paradigms.Behind the fair behavior is the conflict between self-interest and the interest of others.Self-control,as an important ability to deal with conflicts,may be an important mechanism of fairness preference and fairness strategy behavior in game.According to the "energy model",an individual’s self-control has limits like a muscle.An individual’s conscious suppression of the dominant response depletes self-control resources.When the depletion reaches a certain level,there is a state of ego depletion,which has a negative impact on subsequent behaviors that require self-control.Besides the possible effects of ego depletion,trait empathy may also affect children’s fair behavior.As an implicit social presence,eye cues can prompt adults to show more prosocial behaviors such as generosity and cooperation.Based on this,this research adopted the method of questionnaire and experiment to investigate the influence of ego depletion on the fair behavior of the children in the upper grades of primary school in the dictator game and the ultimatum game,whether the influence is mediated by an individual’s trait empathy,and whether the presentation of eye cues can somehow improve the level of fairness in ego depletion.This research is divided into two studies.The first study involved 237 children in the upper grades of elementary school.Trait empathy was measured by trait empathy questionnaire;ego depletion was manipulated by the handedness or unhandedness writing task;fair behavior was measured by fair dictator and ultimatum games.The first study aims to investigate the effect of ego depletion on fairness preference and the fairness strategy,and whether the effect of ego depletion on the fair behavior is the same between individuals with different trait empathy and different games.Study 2 further explored whether eye cues can alleviate the ego depletion effect of children in dictator games.155 trait empathy questionnaires were distributed,and 65 children with low trait empathy were screened out.We investigated whether the presentation of eye cues had a beneficial effect on their fair preference behavior when they developed stronger egoistic impulses due to ego depletion.This research draws the following conclusions:(1)Ego depletion leads to a smaller share of the dictator game for children in the upper grades of elementary school.That is,ego depletion leads to the reduction of children’s fairness preference.(2)Ego depletion leads to a smaller share of the ultimatum game for children in the upper grades of elementary school.But the decrease in the allocation is caused by the decrease in fairness preference,not by the decrease in fairness strategy.That is,Ego depletion does not affect children’s fair strategic behavior.(3)Trait empathy,as a stable personality factor,can mediate the relationship between ego depletion and children’s fair behavior in the dictator game.Specifically,ego depletion has a significant negative effect on fair behavior in children with low trait empathy,but not in children with high trait empathy.(4)Trait empathy can’t mediate the relationship between ego depletion and children’s fair behavior in the ultimatum game.(5)As an implicit social presence cue,eye cues can improve the fair behavior of children with low trait empathy in the state of ego depletion to some extent.