Explore-exploit decisions begin to emerge early in life, and those raised in different childhoods, such as urban and rural settings with various childhood conditions, may develop distinct exploration preferences. However, existing research presents conflicting evidence: some studies suggest that lower-quality early experiences lead to a heightened sensitivity to risk or stress, resulting in a tendency toward over-exploitation, while others argue that higher-quality early experiences can promote cognitive development, enabling children to exhibit a more adult-like, exploitative tendency. To investigate the impact of early life experiences on explore-exploit decisions, we compared the responses of urban and rural children in an explore-exploit task within a reward collection game. Our findings indicate that urban children tend to favor exploitation and achieve better reward performance. These rural-urban differences highlight the need for further research into how cognitive maturity and developmental stage shape explore-exploit choices, with the potential for extending these findings across a range of scenarios.