Most research to study the roots of generosity takes place with adults, in search of insights of potential use to many professions, including philanthropists seeking to sharpen their calls for cash and volunteers. Studies have found that about 70% of adults choose to share when cash is used in the same exercise as that performed with the Israeli children. It's a common exercise used by researchers known as the Dictator Game, in which the participant, the dictator, has to decide how to split a fixed sum of money between himself and a recipient who is unknown and therefore not likely to reciprocate.

Experiments with children typically are staged free of parents, siblings and other acquaintances from whom the child might expect a reward of some kind. Under examination is the willingness" target="_blank" title="n.情愿，乐意，自愿">willingness of children to share with a child they will never meet.

In a large study of British school children aged 4, 6 and 9, Emmanuel College psychologist Joyce Benenson found a strong correlation between socio-economic status and willingness" target="_blank" title="n.情愿，乐意，自愿">willingness to give. Acts of generosity come at lower rates from children in poverty, because 'poverty is linked with myriad differences in socialization practices, including less interaction with unfamiliar adults' and greater exposure to violence, Dr. Benenson wrote in a 2007 article in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior.

Social scientists note that, although studies have found evidence of altruism in young children, it exists in near equal parts, as it does in adults, alongsideselfishness. Of the 136 children in the Israeli study, the largest group gave away one sticker; the second-largest group gave away none. Twenty-two children gave away more than one sticker.

Perusing the Israeli study, Emmanuel College's Dr. Benenson says she isn't tempted to pin any halos on kids willing to give away one of six sets of stickers. Even at 3 or 4 years old, Dr. Benenson says, 'If you've got six packs of something, you know that giving away one isn't really changing what you have.'