GAP - Games and Prosocial Behavior in Preschoolers

How do games influence prosociality? Based on the Social Interdependence Theory (SIT) three different gaming contexts (relations between gamers’ goals) can be deduced – cooperative, competitive and individual. According to SIT, cooperative contexts foster more prosociality towards co-players than competitive or individual ones, which is supported by game studies with children and adults (e.g. Anderson & Morrow, 1995; Bay-Hinitz, Peterson, & Quilitch, 1994; Ewoldsen et al., 2012; Garaigordobil, & Echebarria, 1995; Grineski, 1991; Orlick, 1981; Street, Hoppe, Kingsbury, & Ma, 2004). In previous research, gaming context is often confounded with other variables (e.g. content or outcome), which impedes an unambiguous interpretation of the results. Which part of the promoted prosociality can be ascribed to the gaming context? Another related issue is the scope of the game-induced prosocial behavior. Following recent studies with adults, cooperative games do not only promote prosociality towards co-players, but also towards unfamiliar persons (Greitemeyer & Cox, 2013; Jin & Li, 2017). To date, this question has not been investigated in children. How does the gaming context influence the prosociality of children towards unfamiliar persons?
A newly developed game “KoKo” for one or two players which can be played cooperatively, competitively or individually is used for an experimental study. Dyads of 4- and 5-year-olds play KoKo in one of the three contexts. Hereafter a dictator game is used to measure sharing behavior. Inclusion of others is assessed by a ball tossing game, in which a new co-player joins the child’s group. Additionally, free play between the co-players is observed in regard to prosociality.

游戏如何影响亲社会行为？基于社会相互依赖理论（SIT），可以推断出三种不同的游戏情境（玩家之间目标的关系）——合作、竞争和个体。根据SIT，合作情境相较于竞争或个体情境更能促进对同玩者的亲社会行为，这一观点得到了儿童和成人游戏研究的支持（例如，Anderson & Morrow, 1995；Bay-Hinitz, Peterson, & Quilitch, 1994；Ewoldsen et al., 2012；Garaigordobil, & Echebarria, 1995；Grineski, 1991；Orlick, 1981；Street, Hoppe, Kingsbury, & Ma, 2004）。在先前的研究中，游戏情境往往与其他变量（例如内容或结果）混淆，这阻碍了对结果的无歧义解释。可归因于游戏情境的亲社会行为部分是什么？另一个相关问题是游戏引发的亲社会行为的范围。随着近期对成年人的研究，合作游戏不仅促进了同玩者之间的亲社会行为，也促进了与陌生人之间的亲社会行为（Greitemeyer & Cox, 2013；Jin & Li, 2017）。迄今为止，这一问题尚未在儿童中得到研究。游戏情境如何影响儿童对陌生人的亲社会行为？

一款名为“KoKo”的新游戏，适用于一至两名玩家，可进行合作、竞争或个体游戏，被用于一项实验研究。四岁和五岁的双胞胎在三种情境之一中玩KoKo。随后，使用独裁游戏来衡量分享行为。通过抛球游戏评估了包容他人的程度，在该游戏中，新同玩者加入孩子的团队。此外，还观察了同玩者之间的自由游戏，以了解亲社会行为。