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Panel information
Panel 4. Cognitive Processes

Abstract

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Introduction:
Young children are poor sharers, especially toward members of other races (Aboud, 1988; Zimmerman & Levy, 2000). yet evidence-based prosocial intervention is lacking. Building on prior work revealing positive effects of future imagination on self-control in preschoolers (Zhang et al., 2023), we expanded the outcome to sharing, a behavior also requiring self-restraint. The current study hypothesized that an episodic future thinking intervention would improve children’s sharing of limited resources with both racial in-group and out-group members, and that children’s executive function might moderate the effect of such intervention.

Methods:
Typically developing 4-year-olds in the midwestern US participated (N=87; Mage=53.48 months, SD=4.14 months; 54.8% female; 96.6% White; median and modal household income=$150,000-$174,999 per year). Children were invited to play a marble game where they could allocate marbles (out of 5) to peers they were told would be coming to the lab later that day (a White peer and a Black peer, matched on sex to the participant). Before playing the marble game, children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. Using a storyboard, one group simulated sharing marbles and how good that would feel; another simulated not sharing marbles and feeling bad; a control condition simulated a bedtime routine. Potential covariates included family social diversity, children’s verbal ability, future thinking ability, racial attitudes, executive function, and theory of mind.

Results:
Consistent with prior research, children shared more marbles with the White peer than the Black peer, F(1, 84)=4.49, p=.037, η2=.051. Children’s theory of mind, especially their ability to understand their own mental state, was the strongest predictor of their decision to share (r(87)=.336, p<.001), followed by executive function as measured by the MEFS (r(85)=.217, p=.046). Nonetheless, Chi-square analysis showed that children’s sharing behavior differed significantly across conditions, X2(6, N=87)=13.21, p=.04 (Fig. 1). Despite a low base rate of sharing among 4-year-olds overall, more children in the positive future simulation group shared with partners of both races compared to the negative simulation and control groups. Moderation analysis revealed that executive function, especially children’s working memory as measured by the Backward Word Span (BWS) task, moderated the relation between conditions and total number of marbles shared, ΔR2=.0384, ΔF(1, 83)=3.4, p=.069. A Johnson-Neyman regions of significance analysis suggested the effect of the positive simulation was statistically significant for children whose BWS score was above the 60.9 percentile in the sample (Fig. 2).

Discussion:
Our data showed that being scaffolded to imagine a prosocial outcome and its associated positive emotion is effective at helping preschoolers share limited resources, especially among children with stronger working memory skills, perhaps because they could hold in mind their intention to share. Children in the positive simulation condition also were more likely to share with both peers, effectively mitigating the overall bias to share more marbles with the White peer. This research adds new evidence supporting episodic future thinking as an effective strategy to improve prosocial behaviors, in addition to self-control.

Author information

Author	Role
Jinyi Zhang, University of Minnesota	Presenting author
Kathleen D. Vohs, University of Minnesota	Non-presenting author
Benjamin Ranney, University of Minnesota	Non-presenting author
Stephanie M. Carlson, University of Minnesota	Non-presenting author

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