Investigation of the Effect of Consistent and Inconsistent Behavioral Example Upon Children’s Donation Behaviors

In Experiment 1, the effects of consistent and inconsistent behavioral example on children’s donation behaviors were examined by exposing 80 kindergarten and first-grade children to one of five treatment conditions (i.e., no model, one model donating, two models donating, two models with the first donating and the second not donating, and two models with the first not donating and the second donating). On initial measures, one and two donating models produced significantly more donations than did other conditions, and the initial condition means ordered themselves in the predicted direction. No differences between conditions were evident at follow-up. Experiment 2 evaluated whether follow-up outcomes in Experiment 1 represented a failure to generalize or a failure to retain the initial effects of the modeling experience. The methodology in Experiment 1 was replicated except that, at follow-up, children were given an opportunity to donate in the same experimental situation used for initial measures. Results of Experiment 2 were consistent with those of Experiment 1, and no significant difference was found between the initial and follow-up measures, indicating that initial effects were generally retained across time.