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Eva Ranehill. Photo.

Eva Ranehill

Professor

Eva Ranehill. Photo.

Cooperativeness and competitiveness in children

Author

  • Juan-Camilo Cardenas
  • Anna Dreber
  • Emma von Essen
  • Eva Ranehill

Summary, in English

Cooperation and competition are both essential elements of economic life. Here we explore how cooperativeness in a prisoner's dilemma correlates with competitiveness in a sample of 9–12 years old children in Colombia and Sweden. Using two different measures and four different tasks for competitiveness, we find no consistent relationship between cooperativeness and competitiveness. However, we find evidence of a negative relationship between willingness to compete in a math task and cooperativeness in the overall sample. Competitiveness in math has previously been related to educational choices, and may therefore be the most economically relevant relationship.

Publishing year

2015-12-01

Language

English

Pages

32-41

Publication/Series

Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

Volume

59

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Economics

Keywords

  • Cooperation
  • Competitiveness
  • Experiment
  • Children

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2214-8043