Reputation or Gain : Examining Deception and Generosity Among Children in a Bargaining Ultimatum Game

In a bargaining paradigm, we investigated the influence of reputational concern and monetary gain on generosity and deception. 141 schoolchildren aged between 7 to 12 participated in an ultimatum bargaining game. As proposers, they were asked to split a monetary resource with a hypothetical responder. Our modified bargaining experiment employed rounds and trials with different chances of revealing resource amounts and sizes. Our results showed that deception significantly decreased when there was a chance of revelation, while the rate of real generosity increased in the revelation rounds compared to the non-revelation rounds. Having fewer resources led to more generosity and less deception in both rounds. The results of this study have social implications and can be used for dealing with immoral behaviors among children