Abstract
This research explored the influence of empathic distress on prosocial behavior in a resource allocation task with children. Children were randomly assigned to one of two conditions before engaging in a sticker sharing task; watching either a video of a girl upset that her dog had gone missing (emotion induction condition), or a video of the same girl preparing for a yard sale (control condition). In study one, 5–6 year old children in the emotion induction condition rated the emotional state of both the protagonist and the self more negatively, and also exhibited more prosocial behavior; sharing more in advantageous inequity (AI) trials, and less often withholding a benefit in disadvantageous inequity trials, than the control group. Prosocial behavior was significantly correlated with ratings of the emotional state of the protagonist but not with own emotional state, suggesting that empathic concern rather than personal distress was the primary influence on prosocial behavior. In study two, 3-year-olds were tested on AI trials alone, and like the 5 and 6-year-olds, showed more prosocial behavior in the emotion induction condition than the control.
Highlights
It is well established that prosocial behavior such as helping and sharing emerges early in development (e.g., Rheingold et al, 1976; Warneken and Tomasello, 2006)
Following work with adults by Barraza and Zak (2009), we predicted that children would exhibit more prosocial behavior toward a protagonist when they were primed by a movie showing the protagonist in distress than when the prime was a neutral movie involving the protagonist
We predicted that children in the emotion induction condition would share more in advantageous inequity (AI) trials, and exhibit less envy in disadvantageous inequity (DI) trials, thereby showing more generosity in both kinds of trials
Summary
It is well established that prosocial behavior such as helping and sharing emerges early in development (e.g., Rheingold et al, 1976; Warneken and Tomasello, 2006). We know that preschool children will share, little is known about the mechanisms underlying such prosocial behavior (Hepach et al, 2013). By understanding these mechanisms, it should be possible to support and encourage the development of these highly valued, and critically important social behaviors. We examine the role of empathic distress on young children’s decisions to allocate resources to another person. Our measure of empathic concern is children’s attributions of emotion to another who is observed to be in distress, without necessarily experiencing sadness them selves
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