Peer-reviewed article
Stable intuition and the rise of deliberative prosociality in childhood.
Margoni F, Nava F, Sotis C, Levy MR, Capraro V et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how children's prosocial behaviours develop from ages 3 to 10 by testing 537 Italian children under time pressure (intuitive thinking) and time delay (deliberative thinking) in social decision tasks. Young children showed more prosocial behaviour when responding intuitively, but this shifted with age so that older children's prosocial behaviour became more deliberative and reflective. The research found that beliefs about others' cooperation remained stable across ages, while children's tendency to accept offers decreased with age.
Key points
- Intuitive responses were more prosocial than deliberative ones in early childhood (β = 0.66), but this difference diminished with age (β = -0.11)
- Three latent dimensions of social behaviour were identified: Prosociality, Social Optimism, and Acquiescence
- Social Optimism did not vary significantly across age or decision mode
- Acquiescence (accepting offers) declined with age (β = -0.14)
- Prosocial behaviour shifts from being intuition-driven in early childhood to embedded in reflective, deliberative systems in older children
Limitations
The study used only Italian-speaking children, limiting generalisability to other populations and cultural contexts. The cross-sectional design cannot definitively establish causation or individual developmental trajectories over time.
Abstract
We examine how social behaviours emerge and stabilize across childhood. A sample of 537 Italian-speaking children (3-10 years) were randomly assigned to respond under time pressure (intuitive) or time delay (deliberative) in social decision tasks (Public Goods, Dictator, Ultimatum, Deception and Moral Dilemmas). Factor analysis identified three latent dimensions: Prosociality (cooperative, altruistic and honest actions), Social Optimism (beliefs about others' cooperation) and Acquiescence (tendency to accept offers). Intuitive responses were more prosocial than deliberative ones in early childhood (β = 0.66; 95% CI = (0.35, 0.97)), but this difference diminished with age (β = -0.11; 95% CI = (-0.18, -0.05)). We found no evidence that Social Optimism varied across age or decision mode, whereas Acquiescence declined with age (β = -0.14; 95% CI = (-0.19, -0.10)). These findings suggest a developmental shift whereby prosocial behaviour is initially driven by intuitive responses and gradually becomes embedded within reflective, deliberative decision-making systems, as cooperative dispositions stabilize across childhood.