Children’s Sensitivity to Co-Efficiency in Social Partner Selection

Co-efficiency refers to the efficiency of decisions and actions at the group or dyadic level, and therefore presupposes joint rationality rather than individual optimization. In the present study, co-efficiency is defined as choosing the option that leads to the best overall outcome for the group, even if this option is not individually optimal for either the self or the partner (Török et al., 2019; Sebanz, & Knoblich., 2021). At the dyadic level, maximizing one’s own benefit can sometimes lead to suboptimal collective outcomes. Therefore, information about an agent’s tendency to act co-efficiently may thus serve as valuable information for coordinating actions in uncertain or interdependent contexts. In fact, past research has shown that adults aim to maximize the co-efficiency of the dyad by minimizing the total path length for the dyad, even with the cost of taking a longer path for themselves (Török et al., 2019).