Satisfying personal preference or being considerate? The protagonist’s preference matters in children’s evaluation of social mindfulness

Children around ages 5 to 6 begin valuing social mindfulness, where one leaves a diverse choice for others when selecting an item for themselves. This study investigates how Han Chinese 4- to 9-year-olds and adults may consider protagonists’ preference (unknown, preferring the unique, or identical items) in their evaluations of socially mindful actions. Results show that, with age, children increasingly rate leaving a choice as nicer, both when the protagonist’s preference is unknown or for the unique item. However, when the protagonist prefers identical items, neither children nor adults differentially evaluate between leaving a choice or not. Additionally, children become increasingly sensitive to the costs associated with preferences when evaluating mindful actions. They increasingly evaluated high-cost actions (sacrificing one’s preferred item) most favorably, followed by unknown-cost actions, and low-cost actions (when preference aligns with leaving a choice) least favorably. These findings highlight children’s growing ability to integrate complex understandings of preference and cost into social evaluations.