Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/141620 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 9861
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
This study presents descriptive and causal evidence on the role of social environment for the formation of prosociality. In a first step, we show that socio-economic status (SES) as well as the intensity of mother-child interaction and mothers’ prosocial attitudes are systematically related to elementary school children’s prosociality. In a second step, we present evidence on a randomly assigned variation of the social environment, providing children with a mentor for the duration of one year. Our data include a two-year follow-up and reveal a significant and persistent increase in prosociality in the treatment relative to the control group. Moreover, enriching the social environment bears the potential to close the observed developmental gap in prosociality between low and high SES children. Our findings suggest that the program serves as a substitute for prosocial stimuli in the family environment.
Subjects: 
social preferences
prosociality
formation of preferences
trust
social inequality
JEL: 
D64
C90
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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