The multidimensional nature of early prosocial behavior: a motivational perspective

A majority of current work indicates that the different types of prosocial behavior in young children (helping, sharing, comforting) are not related to each other. Here, I review recent studies that examined the relations between prosocial actions as well as the antecedents and correlates of the particular domains of prosociality. I argue that in addition to different social-cognitive demands also different motivations are involved in early prosocial action, and that prosociality is thus a concept that encompasses – at least early in development – heterogeneous behaviors and motivations

The early origins of human charity: developmental changes in preschoolers’ sharing with poor and wealthy individuals

Recent studies have provided evidence that young children already engage in sharing behavior. The underlying social‐cognitive mechanisms, however, are still under debate. In particular, it is unclear whether or not young children’s sharing is motivated by an appreciation of others’ wealth. Manipulating the material needs of recipients in a sharing task (Experiment 1) and a resource allocation task (Experiment 2), we show that 5‐ but not 3‐year‐old children share more with poor than wealthy individuals. The 3-year-old children even showed a tendency to behave less selfishly towards the rich, yet not the poor recipient. This suggests that very early instances of sharing behavior are not motivated by a consideration of others’ material needs. Moreover, the results show that 5-year-old children were rather inclined to give more to the poor individual than distributing the resources equally, demonstrating that their wish to support the poor overruled the otherwise very prominent inclination to share resources equally. This indicates that charity has strong developmental roots in preschool children

Should infant psychology rely on the violation-of-expectation method? Not anymore

Infant psychology has heavily drawn on the Violation-of-Expectation (VoE) method. In this piece, I analyse the assumptions that go into the VoE method by comparing it with other looking time measures. Reviewing key arguments in the literature, I argue that this method relies on too many questionable assumptions, that its conceptual foundations are thin, and that its findings are empirically not conclusive. Theoretical inferences based on VoE findings are thus too speculative to allow for solid progress in developmental psychology. Overall, while I appreciate that the VoE method has helped to make infant psychology a prominent field of research, I argue that it is time for infant psychology to move forward and to leave the VoE method behind

Caregivers' everyday moral reasoning predicts young children's aggressive, prosocial, and moral development: Evidence from ambulatory assessment

Developmental theories have proposed caregiver reactions, in particular caregivers' moral reasoning with their children, as crucial factors in children's developing morality. Yet, empirical evidence is scarce and mainly restricted to laboratory contexts. Here, we used the ambulatory assessment method to investigate how caregiver responses to moral transgressions longitudinally relate to children's emerging moral agency. On the first measurement point, mothers (N = 220) reported on nine consecutive evenings on a moral transgression of their 5- to 46-month-olds', their emotional and verbal reactions, and how in turn their child reacted. Five months later, mothers reported on their child's aggressive and prosocial (helping, sharing, comforting) behavior. Our results demonstrated that (1) caregiver reasoning supported children's sharing and comforting behavior and was related to lower levels of children's aggressive behavior half a year later, that (2) caregiver reasoning reactions supported children's negative evaluations of their own transgressions while compliance-based caregiver reactions (e.g., physical interventions, reprimands) were predictive of children's subsequent emotional distress and anger, and that (3) caregiver social conformity and reflective functioning abilities emerged as determinants of caregiver negative moral emotions. Thus, this study uses an innovative methodological approach to uncover key characteristics of caregiver moral reactions supporting the development of morality

Whom to ask for help? Children’s developing understanding of other people’s action capabilities

We often rely on other people’s help to accomplish tasks and to attain goals. People, however, differ in their physical action capabilities. Some persons are therefore better able to provide help than others. We investigated 2.5-, 3.5-, and 5-year-old children’s ability to take other person’s action capabilities in a helping situation into account. To this end, they observed a protagonist who needed the help of friends to accomplish several tasks. For each task, two friends were available, but only one was physically able to provide the help. Children were asked to indicate, which partner the protagonist will ask for help. Our results showed a developmental effect with children in the older two groups performing significantly better than those in the youngest group. Additionally, we found evidence that the 5-year-olds outperformed the younger age groups in their ability to justify their choice. Our findings thus suggest that children’s ability to consider others’ physical action capabilities in helping situations develops around 3 years of age. The results are interpreted in terms of children’s ability to perceive others’ affordances. The implication of these findings for theories on the development of action understanding and joint action are discussed

Malleability of the sense of bodily self in early childhood: 5- and 6-year-old children show the enfacement illusion

The mechanisms underlying the developing sense of bodily self are debated. Whereas some scholars stress the role of sensory factors, others propose the importance of contextual factors. By manipulating multisensory stimulation and social familiarity with the other person, we explored two factors that are proposed to relate to young children’s developing sense of bodily self. Including an adult sample allowed us to investigate age-related differences of the malleability of the bodily self. To this end, the study implemented an enfacement illusion with children (N = 64) and adults (N = 33). Participants were exposed to one trial with synchronous interpersonal multisensory stimulation and one trial with asynchronous interpersonal multisensory stimulation—either with a stranger or with the mother as the other person. A self-recognition task using morph videos of self and other and an enfacement questionnaire were implemented as dependent measures. Results revealed evidence for the presence of the enfacement effect in children in both measures. The identity of the other person had a significant effect on the self-recognition task. Contrary to our hypothesis, the effect was significantly smaller in the caregiver condition. No significant differences between children and adults emerged. Our results demonstrate the role of both multisensory stimulation and contextual—here social familiarity—factors for the construction and development of a bodily self. The study provides developmental science with a novel approach to the bodily self by showing the validity of the self-recognition task in a child sample. Overall, the study supports proposals that the sense of bodily self is malleable early in development

I help, therefore, I am?—longitudinal interrelations of the three‐dimensional moral self‐concept and prosocial behaviours in 4–6‐year‐old children

Children's moral self-concept (MSC) has been proposed to relate to prosocial behaviour. However, systematic assessments of their interrelations are scarce. The current study examines the early development, structure, stability and interrelation of three key prosocial behaviours and the corresponding dimensions of the moral self-concept. To this end, we use a longitudinal approach with three measurement points during the preschool years at ages 4, 5 and 6 years. We assess three prosocial dimensions of children's MSC through a puppet-interview. In addition, behavioural measures of children's helping, sharing and comforting were administered in a laboratory setting. By examining the longitudinal associations between MSC and prosocial behaviours, this study will provide valuable insights into the complex nature of prosocial development in early childhood

Robin Hood or Matthew? Children’s Reasoning About Redistributive Justice in the Context of Economic Inequalities

How should one respond to ubiquitous economic inequalities? The legend Robin Hood suggests to take away from the wealthy to benefit the poor, whereas another strategy holds the opposite (Matthew effect). Here, 3- to 8-year-old children (N = 140) witnessed protagonists performing redistributions (e.g., Robin Hood, Matthew) of necessary and luxury resources between a wealthy and a poor child. Results showed that, with age, children increasingly approved of Robin Hood and increasingly disapproved of Matthew. In addition, reasoning about others’ welfare mediated the effect of age on children’s evaluation of Robin Hood, but only for necessary resources. This suggests that children regard restorative justice actions as a strategy to address social inequalities when it increases the welfare of disadvantaged agents

The normative status of friendship: Do young children enforce sharing with friends and appreciate reasonable partiality?

Contemporary moral philosophy stresses the idea of reasonable partiality. This concept proposes that close relationships carry a normative obligation to be partial toward another person. This study explored in two experiments whether 4- to 6-year-old children (NÂ =Â 185) enforce partiality toward friends from third parties (Experiment 1) and how they prioritize a norm of equality and interpersonal obligations toward friends (Experiment 2). Children were presented with protagonists who could distribute resources between a friend and a disliked peer. One protagonist complied with a norm of partiality by allocating more resources to his friend, whereas the other protagonist either behaved in the opposite way (Experiment 1) or distributed resources equally (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, children enforced partiality by protesting against the protagonist who gave more to the disliked peer and by selectively affirming the protagonist who gave more to the friend. Yet, in Experiment 2, children showed stronger enforcement of a norm of equal sharing than partiality toward the friend. The study demonstrates how young children deal with normative demands in the context of friendship. At the same time, it suggests that fairness norms are given priority. Overall, our study demonstrates how young children handle normative demands and interpersonal responsibilities