Little Emperors: Behavioral Impacts of China's One-Child Policy

We document that China's One-Child Policy (OCP), one of the most radical approaches to limiting population growth, has produced significantly less trusting, less trustworthy, more risk-averse, less competitive, more pessimistic, and less conscientious individuals. Our data were collected from e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2013-02, Vol.339 (6122), p.953-957
Main Authors: Cameron, L., Erkal, N., Gangadharan, L., Meng, X.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Altruism
Anxiety Disorders
Attitude
Behavior
Behavioral sciences
Births
China
Competitive Behavior
Economics
Family
Family Characteristics
Family Planning Policy
Female
Games
Games, Experimental
Governments
Humans
Male
Media
Neuroticism
Online
Only Child - psychology
Personality
Personality traits
Policies
Population
Risk
Risk-Taking
Social policy
Sons
Trust
Urban Population
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Summary:We document that China's One-Child Policy (OCP), one of the most radical approaches to limiting population growth, has produced significantly less trusting, less trustworthy, more risk-averse, less competitive, more pessimistic, and less conscientious individuals. Our data were collected from economics experiments conducted with 421 individuals born just before and just after the OCP's introduction in 1979. Surveys to elicit personality traits were also used. We used the exogenous imposition of the OCP to identify the causal impact of being an only child, net of family background effects. The OCP thus has significant ramifications for Chinese society.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1230221