The effect of joint actions on intergroup sharing behavior in early childhood

The development of prosocial behaviors in early childhood is closely linked to social interactions and group dynamics. Sharing, one of the fundamental prosocial behaviors observed during this period, is influenced by both individual characteristics and the social context of children. The literature indicates that children generally share more with ingroup members than with outgroup members. However, recent studies have begun to investigate how joint actions—activities performed together with another person and requiring mutual coordination—affect children's sharing tendencies. It has been suggested that joint actions may foster a sense of togetherness and social connectedness, thereby promoting prosocial behaviors in children. In this context, the present study aimed to examine the effect of joint actions on children's sharing behavior in an intergroup context during early childhood. The sample consisted of 80 children (Ngirl =40) aged 4 to 5 years. Data collection was conducted face-to-face in the preschools attended by the children. Prior to participation, informed consent and demographic information forms were obtained from parents. Teachers of the participating children completed the Teacher Form of the Child Prosociality Scale and the Teacher Form of the Executive Functions Inventory to assess the children's social and cognitive characteristics. Based on their prosociality and executive function scores, children were randomly assigned—while ensuring balance between individual factors across groups— to either the Standard Simon Task (played individually) or the Joint Simon Task (played with an adult). Each main group was further divided into two subgroups according to the group identity of the recipient (ingroup or outgroup). Thus, the experimental design included both the type of Simon Task (individual/joint) and the group identity of the recipient (ingroup/outgroup) as crossed factors. Participants first completed the Simon Task on a computer according to their assigned condition and earned ten stickers as a reward. Following the Simon Task, the Dictator Game was administered using the stickers the children had earned. At this stage, children were told that they could, if they wished, share their stickers with the assigned recipient (ingroup: Ahmet/İpek; outgroup: Syrian Omar/Lana). Sharing was quantitatively assessed based on the number of stickers shared by the children. The findings revealed that children who participated in joint actions shared significantly more than those who performed the task individually. Notably, the amount of sharing with outgroup members was significantly higher among children in the joint action condition compared to those in the individual condition. In contrast, no significant difference was observed between the joint and individual conditions in sharing with ingroup members. Furthermore, the results of the variance analysis indicated that both the type of Simon Task and the group identity of the recipient had significant effects on sharing behavior, and that there was a significant interaction between these two variables.