Reciprocity is fundamental to cooperation. Yet, it can also motivate unethical behaviors, such as when one diverts resources meant for the common good to pay back a favor. To examine the ontogeny of the unethical influence of reciprocity, this study invited 4- to 7-year-old children ( N = 83) to referee and then play a guessing game with performance-based rewards. Prior to the game, a puppet partner gave a gift to either the child referee (Gift condition) or another recipient (No Gift condition). Then, during the game, the partner asked the child referee to help her cheat and obtain undeserved rewards from a pool of common good resources. Unexpectedly, children helped the partner cheat at similarly high rates whether or not they had received a gift from the partner, but receiving a gift did increase children’s selfish cheating for their own benefit. These results extend previous evidence that reciprocity increases prosocial unethical behavior by showing that, at least in some cases, it also increases selfish unethical behavior. • This study examined prosocial and selfish cheating from ages 4–7. • Receiving a gift did not increase children’s prosocial cheating to help the giver. • Yet, receiving a gift did increase children’s selfish cheating to help themselves. • Experiencing an implicit quid pro quo may increase selfish unethical behavior.
Li et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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