Recipient identifiability increases prosocial behavior in young children

Abstract

Research in adults has established that identifying an individual (e.g., by name or a photograph) increases adults’ prosocial behavior toward that individual. However, little is known about the developmental emergence of this “identifiable victim effect.” We conducted a preregistered study to assess the effects of identifiability on young children’s prosocial behavior. Children aged 3.5 to 6.5 years were given five stickers that they could distribute between themselves and another child, who was either identified by name or unidentified. Across ages, children were more likely to share—and shared more stickers—with the identified recipient than with the unidentified recipient. These results indicate that recipient identifiability promotes prosocial behavior from remarkably early in development.