How money can really make children more selfish

PARENTS might be tempted to give their children a few euro as pocket money but letting children handle cash makes them less helpful, a study has found.

The behaviour of children as young as three years old can change dramatically if they touch coins and notes, even for a short time.

US research found children who played with cash were ‘more selfish, less helpful and less generous’ than those who did not.

In one experiment, a group of threeyear-olds in Poland was asked to sort money by denomination or paper slips then asked to help prepare materials for the next child undergoing the test.

Children who had sorted money were

‘Less helpful and less generous’

less helpful than those who had sorted paper.

In another experiment, US children aged three to six were told a classroom needed to be kept tidy. Next, they were given a box of money and allowed to play with it for as long as they liked.

Researchers then asked the children to go to another room and watched to see if they tidied as requested. In the next room they were told to choose up to three toys in exchange for playing with children at a different school.

They were also asked if they wanted to give their toys to youngsters at another school, and told doing so would make the other children happy. The study said: ‘Children who played longer with money were more selfish, less helpful, and less generous.

‘They were less helpful in keeping the room tidy and less willing to help ready materials for the next child.

‘They also took more rewards for themselves and were less inclined to give away their toys.’

Lead author Lan Chaplin, of the University of Illinois at Chicago, said it showed children’s minds had formed adult-like connections to money, even though they could not articulate it.