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Köster M, Hepach R. Preverbal infants' understanding of social norms. Sci Rep 2024; 14:2983. [PMID: 38316858 PMCID: PMC10844370 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-53110-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/19/2023] [Accepted: 01/27/2024] [Indexed: 02/07/2024] Open
Abstract
Social norms are foundational to human cooperation and co-existence in social groups. A crucial marker of social norms is that a behavior is not only shared, but that the conformity to the behavior of others is a basis for social evaluation (i.e., reinforcement and sanctioning), taking the is, how individuals usually behave, to an ought, how individuals should behave to be socially approved by others. In this preregistered study, we show that 11-month-old infants grasp this fundamental aspect about social norms already in their first year. They showed a pupillary surprise response for unexpected social responses, namely the disapproval and exclusion of an individual who showed the same behavior like others or the approval and inclusion of an individual who behaved differently. That preverbal infants link the conformity with others' behavior to social evaluations, before they respond to norm violations themselves, indicates that the foundations of social norm understanding lie in early infancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Moritz Köster
- Institute of Psychology, University of Regensburg, Sedanstraße 1, 93055, Regensburg, Germany.
| | - Robert Hepach
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
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2
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Children endorse deterrence motivations for third-party punishment but derive higher enjoyment from compensating victims. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 230:105630. [PMID: 36731278 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/12/2022] [Revised: 11/23/2022] [Accepted: 01/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/04/2023]
Abstract
Children's punishment behavior may be driven by both retribution and deterrence, but the potential primacy of either motive is unknown. Moreover, children's punishment enjoyment and compensation enjoyment have never been directly contrasted. Here, British, Colombian, and Italian 7- to 11-year-old children (N = 123) operated a Justice System in which they viewed different moral transgressions in Minecraft, a globally popular video game, either face-to-face with an experimenter or over the internet. Children could respond to transgressions by punishing transgressors and compensating victims. The purpose of the system was framed in terms of retribution, deterrence, or compensation between participants. Children's performance, endorsement, and enjoyment of punishment and compensation were measured, along with their endorsement of retribution versus deterrence as punishment justifications, during and/or after justice administration. Children overwhelmingly endorsed deterrence over retribution as their punishment justification irrespective of age. When asked to reproduce the presented frame in their own words, children more reliably reproduced the deterrence frame rather than the retribution frame. Punishment enjoyment decreased while compensation enjoyment increased over time. Despite enjoying compensation more, children preferentially endorsed punishment over compensation, especially with increasing age and transgression severity. Reported deterrent justifications, superior reproduction of deterrence framing, lower enjoyment of punishment than of compensation, and higher endorsement of punishment over compensation together suggest that children felt that they ought to mete out punishment as a means to deter future transgressions. Face-to-face and internet-mediated responses were not distinguishable, supporting a route to social psychology research with primary school-aged children unable to physically visit labs.
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3
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Outters V, Hepach R, Behne T, Mani N. Children's affective involvement in early word learning. Sci Rep 2023; 13:7351. [PMID: 37147313 PMCID: PMC10162962 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-34049-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2022] [Accepted: 04/23/2023] [Indexed: 05/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The current study set out to examine the underlying physiological mechanisms of and the emotional response associated with word learning success in young 3-year-old predominantly white children. In particular, we examined whether children's physiological arousal following a word learning task predicts their word learning success and whether successful learning in turn predicts children's subsequent positive emotions. We presented children (n = 50) with a cross-situational word learning task and measured their pupillary arousal following completion of the task, as well as changes to their upper body posture following completion of the task, as indices of children's emotions following task completion. Children who showed greater physiological arousal following the novel word recognition task (n = 40) showed improved subsequent word recognition performance. We found that children showed more elevated posture after completing a familiar word learning task compared to completing a novel word learning task (n = 33) but results on children's individual learning success and postural elevation were mixed. We discuss the findings with regards to children's affective involvement in word learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vivien Outters
- Department for Psychology of Language, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Leibniz Science Campus "Primate Cognition", Göttingen, Germany
| | - Robert Hepach
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Tanya Behne
- Leibniz Science Campus "Primate Cognition", Göttingen, Germany
- Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany
| | - Nivedita Mani
- Department for Psychology of Language, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany.
- Leibniz Science Campus "Primate Cognition", Göttingen, Germany.
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4
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Proulx JDE, Van de Vondervoort JW, Hamlin JK, Helliwell JF, Aknin LB. Are Real-World Prosociality Programs Associated with Greater Psychological Well-Being in Primary School-Aged Children? INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2023; 20:4403. [PMID: 36901411 PMCID: PMC10002419 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20054403] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2023] [Revised: 02/19/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Quality education can build a sustainable, happier world, but what experiences support student well-being? Numerous laboratory studies suggest that prosocial behavior predicts greater psychological well-being. However, relatively little work has examined whether real-world prosociality programs are associated with greater well-being in primary school-aged children (aged 5-12). In Study 1, we surveyed 24/25 students who completed their 6th Grade curriculum in a long-term care home alongside residents called "Elders," which offered numerous opportunities for planned and spontaneous helping. We found that the meaning that students derived from their prosocial interactions with the Elders was strongly associated with greater psychological well-being. In Study 2, we conducted a pre-registered field experiment with 238 primary school-aged children randomly assigned to package essential items for children who experience homelessness and/or poverty who were either demographically similar or dissimilar in age and/or gender to them as part of a classroom outing. Children self-reported their happiness both pre- and post-intervention. While happiness increased from pre- to post-intervention, this change did not differ for children who helped a similar or dissimilar recipient. These studies offer real-world evidence consistent with the possibility that engaging in prosocial classroom activities-over an afternoon or year-is associated with greater psychological well-being in primary school-aged children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jason D. E. Proulx
- Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
| | | | - J. Kiley Hamlin
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - John F. Helliwell
- Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1L4, Canada
| | - Lara B. Aknin
- Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada
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5
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Fast AA, Ravi S, Olson KR. When it is better to give than to receive: Children's giving and happiness. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2023. [DOI: 10.1111/sode.12671] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/11/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Anne A. Fast
- Department of Psychology University of Washington Seattle Washington USA
- Department of Psychology Western Washington University Bellingham Washington USA
| | - Sanjana Ravi
- Department of Psychology University of Washington Seattle Washington USA
- Department of Psychology & Human Development Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee USA
| | - Kristina R. Olson
- Department of Psychology University of Washington Seattle Washington USA
- Department of Psychology Princeton University Princeton New Jersey USA
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Michael J, Green A, Siposova B, Jensen K, Kita S. Finish What you Started: 2‐Year‐Olds Motivated by a Preference for Completing Others’ Unfinished Actions in Instrumental Helping Contexts. Cogn Sci 2022; 46:e13160. [DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13160] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2021] [Revised: 05/06/2022] [Accepted: 05/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- John Michael
- Department of Cognitive Science Central European University
| | | | | | - Keith Jensen
- Human Communication, Development & Hearing University of Manchester
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7
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Gerdemann SC, Tippmann J, Dietrich B, Engelmann JM, Hepach R. Young children show negative emotions after failing to help others. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0266539. [PMID: 35442984 PMCID: PMC9020688 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0266539] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Self-conscious emotions, such as guilt and shame, motivate the adherence to social norms, including to norms for prosociality. The relevance of an observing audience to the expression of negative self-conscious emotions remains poorly understood. Here, in two studies, we investigated the influence of being observed on 4- to 5-year-old children's (N = 161) emotional response after failing to help someone in need and after failing to complete their own goal. As an index of children's emotional response, we recorded the change in children's upper body posture using a motion depth sensor imaging camera. Failing to help others lowered children's upper body posture regardless of whether children were observed by an audience or not. Children's emotional response was similar when they failed to help and when they failed to complete their own goal. In Study 2, 5-year-olds showed a greater decrease in upper body posture than 4-year-olds. Our findings suggest that being observed is not a necessary condition for young children to express a negative self-conscious emotion after failing to help or after failing to complete their own goal. We conclude that 5-year-olds, more so that 4-year-olds, show negative emotions when they fail to adhere to social norms for prosociality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stella C. Gerdemann
- Department of Early Child Development, Faculty of Education, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- * E-mail:
| | - Jenny Tippmann
- Institute for Medical Informatics and Biometry, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany
- Center for Evidence-based Healthcare, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany
| | - Bianca Dietrich
- Department of Psychology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Jan M. Engelmann
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States of America
| | - Robert Hepach
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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8
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Gerdemann SC, Büchner R, Hepach R. How being observed influences preschoolers’ emotions following (less) deserving help. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/sode.12578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Stella C. Gerdemann
- Department of Early Child Development Faculty of Education Leipzig University Leipzig Germany
- Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development Leipzig University Leipzig Germany
| | - Ronja Büchner
- University of Leipzig Medical Center Department of Psychiatry Leipzig Germany
| | - Robert Hepach
- Department of Experimental Psychology University of Oxford Oxford UK
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9
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Titova L, Sheldon KM. Thwarted beneficence: Not getting to help lowers mood. THE JOURNAL OF POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2020.1858339] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Liudmila Titova
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
- Department of Psychology, Elon University, Elon, NC, USA
| | - Kennon M. Sheldon
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, USA
- School of Psychology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
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11
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Decety J, Holvoet C. Le développement de l’empathie chez le jeune enfant. ANNEE PSYCHOLOGIQUE 2021. [DOI: 10.3917/anpsy1.213.0239] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022]
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12
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Kachel G, Moore R, Hepach R, Tomasello M. Toddlers Prefer Adults as Informants: 2- and 3-Year-Olds' Use of and Attention to Pointing Gestures From Peer and Adult Partners. Child Dev 2021; 92:e635-e652. [PMID: 33511648 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13544] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Two- and 3-year-old children (N = 96) were tested in an object-choice task with video presentations of peer and adult partners. An immersive, semi-interactive procedure enabled both the close matching of adult and peer conditions and the combination of participants' choice behavior with looking time measures. Children were more likely to use information provided by adults. As the effect was more pronounced in the younger age-group, the observed bias may fade during toddlerhood. As there were no differences in children's propensity to follow peer and adult gestures with their gaze, these findings provide some of the earliest evidence to date that young children take an interlocutor's age into account when judging ostensively communicated testimony.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregor Kachel
- Leipzig University.,Duke University and Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| | | | | | - Michael Tomasello
- Duke University and Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
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13
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Green A, Siposova B, Kita S, Michael J. Stopping at nothing: Two-year-olds differentiate between interrupted and abandoned goals. J Exp Child Psychol 2021; 209:105171. [PMID: 33962107 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/19/2020] [Revised: 03/05/2021] [Accepted: 03/29/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has established that goal tracking emerges early in the first year of life and rapidly becomes increasingly sophisticated. However, it has not yet been shown whether young children continue to update their representations of others' goals over time. The current study investigated this by probing young children's (24- to 30-month-olds; N = 24) ability to differentiate between goal-directed actions that have been halted because the goal was interrupted and those that have been halted because the goal was abandoned. To test whether children are sensitive to this distinction, we manipulated the experimenter's reason for not completing a goal-directed action; his initial goal was either interrupted by an obstacle or abandoned in favor of an alternative. We measured whether children's helping behavior was sensitive to the experimenter's reason for not completing his goal-directed action by recording whether children completed the experimenter's initial goal or the alternative goal. The results showed that children helped to complete the experimenter's initial goal significantly more often after this goal had been interrupted than after it had been abandoned. These results support the hypothesis that children continue to update their representations of others' goals over time by 2 years of age and specifically that they differentiate between abandoned and interrupted goals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander Green
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
| | - Barbora Siposova
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
| | - Sotaro Kita
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
| | - John Michael
- Department of Cognitive Science, Central European University, Budapest 1051, Hungary.
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Baratgin J, Dubois-Sage M, Jacquet B, Stilgenbauer JL, Jamet F. Pragmatics in the False-Belief Task: Let the Robot Ask the Question! Front Psychol 2020; 11:593807. [PMID: 33329255 PMCID: PMC7719623 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.593807] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2020] [Accepted: 10/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The poor performances of typically developing children younger than 4 in the first-order false-belief task "Maxi and the chocolate" is analyzed from the perspective of conversational pragmatics. An ambiguous question asked by an adult experimenter (perceived as a teacher) can receive different interpretations based on a search for relevance, by which children according to their age attribute different intentions to the questioner, within the limits of their own meta-cognitive knowledge. The adult experimenter tells the child the following story of object-transfer: "Maxi puts his chocolate into the green cupboard before going out to play. In his absence, his mother moves the chocolate from the green cupboard to the blue one." The child must then predict where Maxi will pick up the chocolate when he returns. To the child, the question from an adult (a knowledgeable person) may seem surprising and can be understood as a question of his own knowledge of the world, rather than on Maxi's mental representations. In our study, without any modification of the initial task, we disambiguate the context of the question by (1) replacing the adult experimenter with a humanoid robot presented as "ignorant" and "slow" but trying to learn and (2) placing the child in the role of a "mentor" (the knowledgeable person). Sixty-two typical children of 3 years-old completed the first-order false belief task "Maxi and the chocolate," either with a human or with a robot. Results revealed a significantly higher success rate in the robot condition than in the human condition. Thus, young children seem to fail because of the pragmatic difficulty of the first-order task, which causes a difference of interpretation between the young child and the experimenter.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Baratgin
- Laboratoire Cognition Humaine et Artificielle, Université Paris 8, Paris, France
- Probability, Assessment, Reasoning and Inferences Studies (P-A-R-I-S) Association, Paris, France
| | - Marion Dubois-Sage
- Laboratoire Cognition Humaine et Artificielle, Université Paris 8, Paris, France
- Probability, Assessment, Reasoning and Inferences Studies (P-A-R-I-S) Association, Paris, France
| | - Baptiste Jacquet
- Laboratoire Cognition Humaine et Artificielle, Université Paris 8, Paris, France
- Probability, Assessment, Reasoning and Inferences Studies (P-A-R-I-S) Association, Paris, France
| | - Jean-Louis Stilgenbauer
- Laboratoire Cognition Humaine et Artificielle, Université Paris 8, Paris, France
- Probability, Assessment, Reasoning and Inferences Studies (P-A-R-I-S) Association, Paris, France
- Facultés Libres de Philosophie et de Psychologie (IPC), Paris, France
| | - Frank Jamet
- Laboratoire Cognition Humaine et Artificielle, Université Paris 8, Paris, France
- Probability, Assessment, Reasoning and Inferences Studies (P-A-R-I-S) Association, Paris, France
- CY Cergy-Paris Université, ESPE de Versailles, Paris, France
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Ulber J, Tomasello M. Young children's prosocial responses toward peers and adults in two social contexts. J Exp Child Psychol 2020; 198:104888. [PMID: 32622070 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2019] [Revised: 05/02/2020] [Accepted: 05/02/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Young children help and share with others, but little is known about the "how" and "who" of this early prosocial behavior. In the current study, we compared 2- and 3-year-old children's (N = 203; 101 girls) prosocial behavior of sharing and helping. We asked whether the process was different (a) if the social partner was an adult or a same-age peer and (b) if the child was actively interacting and engaged with the partner or not. The highest prosocial responses were found in bilateral joint tasks such as sharing the spoils after a collaborative effort and helping a partner finish a mutual activity. Prosocial responses were lower in unilateral autonomous tasks such as assisting another person in opening a locked box and distributing a windfall of resources. Children did not show an overall preference for helping or sharing with adults versus peers except that they were more likely to support a peer than an adult in an instrumental helping task. Together, these findings suggest that toddlers' early prosocial skills and motivations are more sensitive to how toddlers are engaged with a partner than to who that partner is, implying that children have a nondiscriminatory general inclination to benefit others, especially in bilateral interactive scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Ulber
- School of Psychology, Politics, and Sociology, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury CT1 1QU, UK; Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Michael Tomasello
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA
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Song Y, Broekhuizen ML, Dubas JS. Happy Little Benefactor: Prosocial Behaviors Promote Happiness in Young Children From Two Cultures. Front Psychol 2020; 11:1398. [PMID: 32714246 PMCID: PMC7346734 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01398] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2019] [Accepted: 05/25/2020] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Evidence that young children display more happiness when sharing than receiving treats supports that humans, by nature, are prosocial. However, whether this "warm glow" is also found for other prosocial behaviors (instrumental helping and empathic helping) and/or in different cultures is still unclear. Dutch (studies 1 and 2) and Chinese (study 3) young children participated in a sharing task, followed by instrumental helping and empathic helping tasks in which they were praised (thanked) if they helped. Consistent results were found across three studies, showing that (1) participants displayed more happiness after giving than receiving treats; (2) toddlers displayed more happiness after instrumental helping than initially interacting with the experimenter; and (3) toddlers' happiness remained the same after positive social feedback (i.e., being thanked). Taken together, these results indicate that independent of culture, both sharing and instrumental helping are emotionally rewarding, supporting an evolutionary origin of these behaviors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Song
- Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
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Yucel M, Hepach R, Vaish A. Young Children and Adults Show Differential Arousal to Moral and Conventional Transgressions. Front Psychol 2020; 11:548. [PMID: 32425839 PMCID: PMC7212443 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/17/2019] [Accepted: 03/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
From a young age, children understand and enforce moral norms, which are aimed at preserving the rights and welfare of others. Children also distinguish moral norms from other types of norms such as conventional norms, which serve to ensure coordination within social groups or institutions. However, far less is known about the mechanisms driving this differentiation. This article investigates the role of internal arousal in distinguishing moral from conventional norms. In a between-subjects design, 3-year-olds (n = 32), 4-year-olds (n = 34), and undergraduate students (n = 64) watched a video of either a moral norm violation (e.g., destroying another person's artwork) or a conventional norm violation (e.g., playing a game wrong). Participants of all age groups showed differential physiological arousal (pupil dilation) to moral and conventional norm violations. Participants of all age groups also attended significantly more to the victim of the moral transgression than the bystander in the conventional transgression. Further, this differential attention to the victim/bystander positively correlated with the change in participants' phasic pupil dilation to the norm violation. This is the first evidence that differences in internal arousal co-occur with (and possibly contribute to) the distinction that even young children draw between moral and conventional norms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meltem Yucel
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
| | - Robert Hepach
- Research Methods in Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Amrisha Vaish
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States
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18
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Lee W, Kim EY, Song H. Do infants expect others to be helpful? BRITISH JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2020; 38:478-490. [DOI: 10.1111/bjdp.12331] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2019] [Revised: 03/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Wooyeol Lee
- Chungbuk National University Cheongju South Korea
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Hepach R, Hedley D, Nuske HJ. Prosocial attention in children with and without autism spectrum disorder: Dissociation between anticipatory gaze and internal arousal. JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY 2019; 48:589-605. [DOI: 10.1007/s10802-019-00606-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
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20
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Helping, fast and slow: Exploring intuitive cooperation in early ontogeny. Cognition 2019; 196:104144. [PMID: 31765923 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104144] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2019] [Revised: 11/08/2019] [Accepted: 11/15/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Cooperative behavior is central to human societies. Human adults who reach their cooperative decisions more rapidly and independently of cognitive control display greater levels of prosocial behavior. This is taken to show that cooperation is guided by intuitive processes rather than by active control of selfish impulses. The current study investigated the emergence of intuitive cooperation in early human ontogeny. We measured helping behavior (latency and frequency) in a longitudinal sample of infants at ages 14 and 18 months. Between 14 and 18 months, the frequency of helping significantly increased and latency to help significantly decreased, suggesting advances in helping behavior during this period of development. Moreover, at 18 months and to some extent, even at 14 months, infants who helped more rapidly (as indexed by a shorter latency) acted more prosocially (as indexed by a greater frequency of helping) than infants who were slower to help. This link between latency and frequency of prosocial behavior was independent of infants' ability for inhibitory control and general sociability levels. Prosocial behavior thus begins to be governed by intuitive processes that operate independently of cognitive control early in human ontogeny. This informs our understanding of the nature and emergence of cooperative behavior by supporting accounts that assign a central role to intuition in the evolution of human cooperation.
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Ackermann L, Hepach R, Mani N. Children learn words easier when they are interested in the category to which the word belongs. Dev Sci 2019; 23:e12915. [PMID: 31618505 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12915] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2019] [Revised: 08/28/2019] [Accepted: 10/07/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The overall pattern of vocabulary development is relatively similar across children learning different languages. However, there are considerable differences in the words known to individual children. Historically, this variability has been explained in terms of differences in the input. Here, we examine the alternate possibility that children's individual interest in specific natural categories shapes the words they are likely to learn - a child who is more interested in animals will learn a new animal name easier relative to a new vehicle name. Two-year-old German-learning children (N = 39) were exposed to four novel word-object associations for objects from four different categories. Prior to the word learning task, we measured their interest in the categories that the objects belonged to. Our measure was pupillary change following exposure to familiar objects from these four categories, with increased pupillary change interpreted as increased interest in that category. Children showed more robust learning of word-object associations from categories they were more interested in relative to categories they were less interested in. We further found that interest in the novel objects themselves influenced learning, with distinct influences of both category interest and object interest on learning. These results suggest that children's interest in different natural categories shapes their word learning. This provides evidence for the strikingly intuitive possibility that a child who is more interested in animals will learn novel animal names easier than a child who is more interested in vehicles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lena Ackermann
- Psychology of Language Research Group, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.,Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Goettingen, Germany
| | - Robert Hepach
- Department of Research Methods in Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany.,Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nivedita Mani
- Psychology of Language Research Group, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.,Leibniz ScienceCampus Primate Cognition, Goettingen, Germany
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Hepach R, Vaish A, Müller K, Tomasello M. Toddlers' intrinsic motivation to return help to their benefactor. J Exp Child Psychol 2019; 188:104658. [PMID: 31430569 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.06.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2018] [Revised: 06/13/2019] [Accepted: 06/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
A natural reaction to receiving help from someone is to help that person in return. In two studies, we investigated the developmental origins of children's motivation to return help. In Study 1, 18- and 24-month-old toddlers were either helped or not helped by an adult, and they could subsequently provide that adult with help or else observe another person providing help. We measured children's internal arousal, via changes in pupil dilation, both before and after help was provided. At both ages, children's internal arousal was higher when they could not help the adult who had previously helped them (and was lower when they could). On the other hand, if the adult needing help had not previously helped children, their internal arousal was equally low regardless of whether they or another person provided the help. Study 2 replicated this result and also found that if children had previously been helped but the person needing help was a different adult (not their benefactor), children's internal arousal was equally low regardless of whether they or another person provided the help. Together, these results suggest that young children are intrinsically motivated to return a received favor specifically to the previous benefactor, perhaps indicating a nascent sense of gratitude.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Hepach
- Department of Research Methods in Early Child Development, Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, D-04109 Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Amrisha Vaish
- Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
| | - Katharina Müller
- Department of Sociology, Leipzig University, D-04107 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Michael Tomasello
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA; Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
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23
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Köster M, Kärtner J. Why do infants help? A simple action reveals a complex phenomenon. DEVELOPMENTAL REVIEW 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.dr.2018.11.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/27/2023]
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24
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Hepach R, Vaish A, Müller K, Tomasello M. The relation between young children's physiological arousal and their motivation to help others. Neuropsychologia 2019; 126:113-119. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2017.10.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2017] [Revised: 08/28/2017] [Accepted: 10/06/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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25
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Hepach R, Herrmann E. The Development of Prosocial Attention Across Two Cultures. Front Psychol 2019; 10:138. [PMID: 30804839 PMCID: PMC6370673 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2018] [Accepted: 01/15/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Despite the significance of prosocial attention for understanding variability in children's prosociality little is known about its expression beyond infancy and outside the Western cultural context. In the current study we asked whether children's sensitivity to others' needs varies across ages and between a Western and Non-Western cultural group. We carried out a cross-cultural and cross-sectional eye tracking study in Kenya (n = 128) and Germany (n = 83) with children between the ages of 3 to 9 years old. Half the children were presented with videos depicting an instrumental helping situation in which one adult reached for an object while a second adult resolved or did not resolve the need. The second half of children watched perceptually controlled non-social control videos in which objects moved without any adults present. German children looked longer at the videos than Kenyan children who in turn looked longer at the non-social compared to the social videos. At the same time, children in both cultures and across all age groups anticipated the relevant solution to the instrumental problem in the social but not in the non-social control condition. We did not find systematic changes in children's pupil dilation in response to seeing the problem occur or in response to the resolution of the situation. These findings suggest that children's anticipation of how others' needs are best resolved is a cross-cultural phenomenon that persists throughout childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Hepach
- Department of Research Methods in Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Esther Herrmann
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Minerva Research Group on the Origins of Human Self-Regulation, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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Giner Torréns M, Kärtner J. Affiliation motivates children’s prosocial behaviors: Relating helping and comforting to imitation. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 2019. [DOI: 10.1111/sode.12357] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Joscha Kärtner
- Lab of Developmental Psychology University of Münster Münster Germany
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Ruffman T, Then R, Cheng C, Imuta K. Lifespan differences in emotional contagion while watching emotion-eliciting videos. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0209253. [PMID: 30657754 PMCID: PMC6338362 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209253] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2018] [Accepted: 12/03/2018] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous research has examined empathic concern by presenting toddlers with a sad stimulus and examining their emotional response, with the conclusion that toddlers display empathy. Yet, such research has failed to include basic control conditions involving some other aversive stimulus such as white noise. Nor has it compared toddlers to adults to examine potential development in empathy. In the present study, we showed toddlers and adults four video types: infant crying, infant laughing, infant babbling, and a neutral infant accompanied by white noise. We then coded happiness and sadness while viewing the videos, and created a difference score (happiness minus sadness), testing 52 toddlers and 61 adults. Whereas adults showed more sadness towards infant crying than any other stimulus, toddlers' response to crying and white noise was similar. Thus, the toddler response to crying was comparable to previous studies (slight sadness), but was no different to white noise and was significantly reduced relative to adults. As such, toddlers' response seemed to be better characterized as a reaction to an aversive stimulus rather than empathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ted Ruffman
- Department of Psychology, University of OtagoDunedin, New Zealand
| | - Rebecca Then
- Department of Psychology, University of OtagoDunedin, New Zealand
| | - Christie Cheng
- Department of Psychology, University of OtagoDunedin, New Zealand
| | - Kana Imuta
- School of Psychology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
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Keil V, Hepach R, Vierrath S, Caffier D, Tuschen-Caffier B, Klein C, Schmitz J. Children with social anxiety disorder show blunted pupillary reactivity and altered eye contact processing in response to emotional faces: Insights from pupillometry and eye movements. J Anxiety Disord 2018; 58:61-69. [PMID: 30053635 DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2018.07.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2017] [Revised: 06/25/2018] [Accepted: 07/09/2018] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive models and adult research associate social anxiety disorder (SAD) with hypervigilant-avoidant processing of social information, such as eye contact. However, processing biases in childhood SAD remain mostly unexplored. We examined 10- to 13-year-old children's eye contact processing and pupil dilation in response to happy, neutral, and angry faces in three groups: SAD (n = 31), mixed anxiety disorders (MAD; n = 30), and healthy controls (HC; n = 32). Compared to HC, SAD children showed faster first fixations on the eye region of neutral faces and shorter first fixation durations on the eye region of all faces. No differences between the two clinical groups emerged in eye movement results. SAD girls showed reduced pupil dilation in response to happy and angry faces compared to MAD and to happy faces compared to HC. SAD boys showed reduced pupil dilation in response to neutral faces compared to HC. Dimensionally, reduced pupil dilation was linked to social anxiety severity while eye movements were correlated with mixed anxiety and depressive severity. Results suggest that hypervigilant-avoidant eye contact processing and a blunted pupillary reactivity characterize children with SAD. Both transdiagnostic and disorder-specific processing biases are relevant for the understanding of childhood SAD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Verena Keil
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Robert Hepach
- Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Germany; Department of Research Methods in Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Germany
| | - Severin Vierrath
- Laboratory for MEMS Applications, IMTEK - Department of Microsystems Engineering, University of Freiburg, Germany
| | - Detlef Caffier
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Freiburg, Germany
| | | | - Christoph Klein
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical Faculty, University of Freiburg, Germany; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Germany
| | - Julian Schmitz
- Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Leipzig University, Germany; Leipzig Research Center for Early Child Development, Leipzig University, Germany
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Liu S, Gonzalez G, Warneken F. Worth the wait: Children trade off delay and reward in self‐ and other‐benefiting decisions. Dev Sci 2018; 22:e12702. [DOI: 10.1111/desc.12702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2017] [Accepted: 05/22/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Shari Liu
- Department of Psychology Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts
| | - Gorana Gonzalez
- Department of Psychology Boston College Boston Massachusetts
| | - Felix Warneken
- Department of Psychology University of Michigan Ann Arbor Michigan
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30
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Schuhmacher N, Köster M, Kärtner J. Modeling Prosocial Behavior Increases Helping in 16‐Month‐Olds. Child Dev 2018; 90:1789-1801. [DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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31
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Aknin LB, Van de Vondervoort JW, Hamlin JK. Positive feelings reward and promote prosocial behavior. Curr Opin Psychol 2018; 20:55-59. [DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.08.017] [Citation(s) in RCA: 100] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2017] [Revised: 06/21/2017] [Accepted: 08/03/2017] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
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32
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How to build a helpful baby: a look at the roots of prosociality in infancy. Curr Opin Psychol 2018; 20:21-24. [DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2017] [Revised: 06/26/2017] [Accepted: 08/03/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
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Abstract
This article discusses three major, but related, controversies surrounding the idea of morality. Is the complete pattern of features defining human morality unique to this species? How context dependent are moral beliefs and the emotions that often follow a violation of a moral standard? What developmental sequence establishes a moral code? This essay suggests that human morality rests on a combination of cognitive and emotional processes that are missing from the repertoires of other species. Second, the moral evaluation of every behavior, whether by self or others, depends on the agent, the action, the target of the behavior, and the context. The ontogeny of morality, which begins with processes that apes possess but adds language, inference, shame, and guilt, implies that humans are capable of experiencing blends of thoughts and feelings for which no semantic term exists. As a result, conclusions about a person's moral emotions based only on questionnaires or interviews are limited to this evidence.
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Hepach R, Warneken F. Editorial overview: Early development of prosocial behavior: Revealing the foundation of human prosociality. Curr Opin Psychol 2018; 20:iv-viii. [PMID: 29510908 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.02.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Robert Hepach
- Department of Research Methods in Early Child Development, Leipzig University, 04109 Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Felix Warneken
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Felix Warneken
- Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109
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36
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Pletti C, Scheel A, Paulus M. Intrinsic Altruism or Social Motivation-What Does Pupil Dilation Tell Us about Children's Helping Behavior? Front Psychol 2017; 8:2089. [PMID: 29259566 PMCID: PMC5723414 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02089] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2017] [Accepted: 11/16/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Carolina Pletti
- Developmental Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
| | - Anne Scheel
- School of Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
| | - Markus Paulus
- Developmental Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Munich, Germany
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37
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Heiphetz L. The development and importance of shared reality in the domains of opinion, morality, and religion. Curr Opin Psychol 2017; 23:1-5. [PMID: 29156322 DOI: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.11.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2017] [Accepted: 11/03/2017] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
The importance of shared reality emerges early in human development. Infants and young children notice when others share their beliefs, and information about shared beliefs influences their social judgments. This article reviews recent research on the importance of shared beliefs in three domains that have been widely investigated over the past several years-opinions, moral views, and religious beliefs. I argue that shared religious beliefs appear especially influential and suggest several reasons why this might be the case, including the perceived link between religion and morality as well as the strong role that religious beliefs play in personal identity. Future research can further test these possibilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Larisa Heiphetz
- Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY 10027, USA.
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38
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Tomasello M, Gonzalez-Cabrera I. The Role of Ontogeny in the Evolution of Human Cooperation. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2017; 28:274-288. [PMID: 28523464 PMCID: PMC5524848 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-017-9291-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
To explain the evolutionary emergence of uniquely human skills and motivations for cooperation, Tomasello et al. (2012, in Current Anthropology 53(6):673-92) proposed the interdependence hypothesis. The key adaptive context in this account was the obligate collaborative foraging of early human adults. Hawkes (2014, in Human Nature 25(1):28-48), following Hrdy (Mothers and Others, Harvard University Press, 2009), provided an alternative account for the emergence of uniquely human cooperative skills in which the key was early human infants' attempts to solicit care and attention from adults in a cooperative breeding context. Here we attempt to reconcile these two accounts. Our composite account accepts Hrdy's and Hawkes's contention that the extremely early emergence of human infants' cooperative skills suggests an important role for cooperative breeding as adaptive context, perhaps in early Homo. But our account also insists that human cooperation goes well beyond these nascent skills to include such things as the communicative and cultural conventions, norms, and institutions created by later Homo and early modern humans to deal with adult problems of social coordination. As part of this account we hypothesize how each of the main stages of human ontogeny (infancy, childhood, adolescence) was transformed during evolution both by infants' cooperative skills "migrating up" in age and by adults' cooperative skills "migrating down" in age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Tomasello
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04105, Leipzig, Germany.
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
| | - Ivan Gonzalez-Cabrera
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04105, Leipzig, Germany
- Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Klosterneuburg, Austria
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Reschke PJ, Walle EA, Dukes D. Interpersonal Development in Infancy: The Interconnectedness of Emotion Understanding and Social Cognition. CHILD DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES 2017. [DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12230] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Daniel Dukes
- University of Neuchâtel
- University of Geneva
- University of California, Berkeley
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40
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41
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Davidov M, Vaish A, Knafo-Noam A, Hastings PD. The Motivational Foundations of Prosocial Behavior From A Developmental Perspective-Evolutionary Roots and Key Psychological Mechanisms: Introduction to the Special Section. Child Dev 2016; 87:1655-1667. [DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12639] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
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42
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Hepach R, Vaish A, Tomasello M. Children's Intrinsic Motivation to Provide Help Themselves After Accidentally Harming Others. Child Dev 2016; 88:1251-1264. [PMID: 27800601 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12646] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Little is known about the flexibility of children's prosocial motivation. Here, 2- and 3-year-old children's (n = 128) internal arousal, as measured via changes in pupil dilation, was increased after they accidentally harmed a victim but were unable to repair the harm. If they were able to repair (or if they themselves did not cause the harm and the help was provided by someone else) their arousal subsided. This suggests that children are especially motivated to help those whom they have harmed, perhaps out of a sense of guilt and a desire to reconcile with them. Young children care not only about the well-being of others but also about the relationship they have with those who depend on their help.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Hepach
- Leipzig University and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| | | | - Michael Tomasello
- Duke University and Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
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43
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Hepach
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| | - Katharina Haberl
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| | - Stéphane Lambert
- Département d'études cognitives; CNRS, UMR8129, Institut Jean-Nicod, Ecole normale supérieure - PSL Research University
| | - Michael Tomasello
- Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
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