Abstract
The propensity of humans to engage in prosocial behavior is unlike that of any other species. Individuals will help others even when it comes at a cost to themselves, and even when the others are complete strangers. However, to date, scant empirical evidence has been forthcoming on young children’s altruistic tendencies. To investigate this 45 4-year-olds were presented with a task in which they had opportunity to help an adult confederate retrieve a reward from a novel box. In a control condition children were given no information about the effect of potential helping behavior. Alternatively they were informed that helping would either cost them (i.e., they would miss out on getting the reward) or benefit them (i.e., they would get the reward). It was hypothesized that children would be less likely, and slower, to help in the cost condition, compared to the other two conditions. This hypothesis was not supported: children across all conditions provided help at near ceiling levels.
Highlights
Humans are highly prosocial beings; we share our food, we give gifts, we hold open doors for people, we inform others with helpful information, and we comfort those who have lost a loved one
Capable of altruistic behavior, we will help others when it incurs a considerable cost to ourselves, and even when the recipients of the help are not related to us (Trivers, 1971; Zahavi, 2003). This tendency to engage in prosocial behavior emerges early, with, for example, children in the first half of their second year directing an adult to the location of an ostensibly missing item (Liszkowski et al, 2006)
As early as 6 months of age, infants are sensitive to fairness and prefer helpful individuals over unhelpful ones (Hamlin et al, 2007; see Scarf et al, 2012), by 12 months they begin to provide helpful information to others (Liszkowski et al, 2008) and as they move into their second year begin sharing toys with an unfamiliar adult (Schmidt and Sommerville, 2011) and same-aged peers (Hay et al, 1991)
Summary
Humans are highly prosocial beings; we share our food, we give gifts, we hold open doors for people, we inform others with helpful information, and we comfort those who have lost a loved one. As early as 6 months of age, infants are sensitive to fairness and prefer helpful individuals over unhelpful ones (Hamlin et al, 2007; see Scarf et al, 2012), by 12 months they begin to provide helpful information to others (Liszkowski et al, 2008) and as they move into their second year begin sharing toys with an unfamiliar adult (Schmidt and Sommerville, 2011) and same-aged peers (Hay et al, 1991) In this period infants become increasingly capable of providing instrumental help; that is, helping another achieve a goal. In a landmark study Warneken and Tomasello (2006) presented 18-month-olds with a range of scenarios in which an adult needed help to achieve a goal that was not directly for the infant (e.g., the adult dropped a peg out of reach while trying to hang a towel on a line or he attempted to open a cabinet while holding a stack of magazines that prohibited him from doing so). A follow up study found 14-month-olds could show this kind of helping behavior but only on ‘out-of-reach’ tasks such as the clothesline example noted above (Warneken and Tomasello, 2007)
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