Social attitudes, positive behaviour, and giving: evidence from children at school

Abstract

We perform three standard experimental games (i.e., ultimatum, trust, and public good game) with children aged 9 to 13 in two Italian schools. Before the experiments, all children were asked about their social attitudes through a detailed questionnaire, and in one school they were treated with a Positive Behaviour Intervention and Support (PBIS) socio-educational approach. We test the effect of the treatment by controlling for the role of specific components such as trust, altruism, school, family, and friends. We find that the treatment is significantly correlated with students' giving together with other social factors.

Keywords: children, school, lab experiment, positive behaviour, social attitudes. JEL classsification: C9, D81, D9, I21

JEL Classification: C9, D81, D9, I21