Children Demonstrate Selfishness in the Presence of Their Personified Objects

The audience effect causes people to change their behavior in the presence of another person. It can lead to better motor performance and greater generosity. Both human entities and invisible characters can induce this effect in young children and adults. In this study, we examined whether children’s imaginary companions can induce this effect. Accordingly, 49 children, aged 4 to 6 years, who had personified objects were subjected to a simple motor task (dropping marbles as fast as possible within 2 minutes) and moral task (deciding how many stickers to take from anonymous children) across three conditions: alone, in the presence of a human adult, and personified object, respectively. Performance on the simple motor task did not differ across conditions. However, children took more stickers in the presence of their personified objects than in the human conditions. These results are discussed in relation to children’s recognition of their personified objects.