Growing decision-making: the role of theory of mind, empathy, and personality traits in school-age children

Children’s decision-making is a socio-cognitive skill embedded within a broader\r\nsystem that promotes understanding of others and effective management of\r\ninterpersonal contexts, making it closely linked to Theory of Mind (ToM) and empathy.\r\nThe present study examined how these abilities, together with personality traits\r\nand cognitive skills, relate to decision-making in middle childhood, specifically\r\nregarding fairness, altruism, and delay of gratification. A sample of 94 children\r\naged 6–10 years completed tasks assessing fairness (Ultimatum Game), altruism\r\n(Dictator Game), and delay of gratification (Marshmallow Task), together with\r\nmeasures of ToM, empathy, personality traits, and cognitive ability. Results revealed\r\nthat fairness was predicted by ToM and situational empathy, suggesting that\r\nacting fairly involves integrating mental-state reasoning with context-dependent\r\nemotional responsiveness. Altruism, in contrast, was specifically associated with\r\naffective empathy, indicating that children’s tendency to help others is primarily\r\ndriven by their emotional sensitivity. Delay of gratification was unrelated to ToM\r\nor empathy. Instead, it was predicted by the personality trait of Openness to\r\nExperience, reflecting the role of trait-like motivational tendencies in delay of\r\ngratification. Age and general cognitive ability did not predict any of the decision-\r\nmaking outcomes. Path analyses confirmed that fairness and altruism are driven\r\nby social-cognitive mechanisms, whereas delay of gratification depends primarily\r\non individual dispositions rather than interpersonal processing. These findings\r\nclarify the specific contributions of ToM, empathy, and personality to children’s\r\ndecision-making and carry important implications for developmental and educational\r\npractices.