Do storybooks with anthropomorphized animal characters promote prosocial behaviors in young children?

Transformative tales: The role of story videos on children's reasoning about transgender identities

The current study explored whether positive contact through stories could influence how young children think about transgender identities and gender in general. A total of 174 children ages 5-6 and 9-10 were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Jazz (participants watched a video regarding a transgender child named Jazz), Blue (participants watched a video regarding a marker that looked red on the outside but inside was really blue) and control (no video). Both videos described the main character as feeling different inside than outside, and their social transition to their preferred identity; researcher scaffolding supported the video messages. Children who viewed the Jazz video had: (a) greater understanding of transgender identities and (b) no overall differences in gender essentialism, but (c) lower gender essentialism on three specific measures (gender immutability, innate toy behaviours and innate preferences). Also, gender essentialism was lower in older versus younger children. In this study, a direct, realistic story was the only effective means of teaching children about transgender identities and reducing belief in gender immutability. Thus, stories can be a way to teach children about the social world and change essentialist beliefs, but the impact may be limited and greatly affected by features of the story.

The effect of picture book reading on young children's use of an emotion regulation strategy

Picture book reading is an enjoyable everyday activity for many young children with well-known benefits for language development. The present study investigated whether picture book reading can support young children's social-emotional development by providing a learning opportunity for the usage of emotion regulation strategies. Three-year-old children participated in two waiting situations designed to elicit negative affect. Between these waiting situations they read a picture book. In two experimental conditions, the book depicted how a protagonist (same-aged peer or young adult, respectively) waited for a desired object and distracted herself with toys while waiting. Children in an additional control condition read a picture book that was unrelated to waiting. Use of distraction did not differ between conditions. Parents often read picture book interactively with their children. Therefore, in an additional condition (Exp. 2), the experimenter read the picture book featuring the same-aged peer protagonist in an interactive way intended to facilitate transfer. Apart from the reading style, the design was identical to experiment 1. Experiment 2 intended to test whether changes in reading style lead to differences in three-year old children's social-emotional learning from picture books. When controlling for the children's picture book experience, children in the experimental conditions exhibited an increase in distraction in contrast to children in the control condition. In sum, results suggest that picture book reading could be an ecologically valid and versatile method for supporting 3-year-old children in their use of an age-appropriate adaptive emotion regulation strategies such as distraction.

Exploring factors influencing young children's learning from storybooks: Interactive and multimedia features

Electronic storybooks are increasingly popular with preschoolers. The purpose of our research was to investigate the effects of interactive and multimedia features in electronic storybooks on preschoolers' learning. We assigned 4- to 6-year-old children to different reading conditions in two experiments. Children were required to complete tests for learning outcomes and answer questions about the reading experience. In Experiment 1, children in the interactive (self-paced) group needed to turn the pages by a button on the page, whereas the pages were turned automatically in the non-interactive (system-controlled) group. We found that children in the system-controlled condition performed better in inference making than children in the self-paced condition. In Experiment 2, we used a 2 (Animation: present or non-present) × 2 (Background Music: present or non-present) between-participants design. We found that children's scores of learning and interest in groups with animations were higher than those in groups without animations. This research suggests that electronic books with animations congruent with the learning content promote learning for both adults and young children. Thus, we offer suggestions for designers of electronic books. Moreover, the study provides implications for educators and parents, and we suggest that multi-featured electronic storybooks for preschoolers should be carefully selected.

Hearing Prosocial Stories Increases Hadza Hunter-Gatherers' Generosity in an Economic Game

Folk stories featuring prosocial content are ubiquitous across cultures. One explanation for the ubiquity of such stories is that stories teach people about the local socioecology, including norms of prosociality, and stories featuring prosocial content may increase generosity in listeners. We tested this hypothesis in a sample of 185 Hadza hunter-gatherers. We read participants a story in which the main character either swims with another person (control story) or rescues him from drowning (prosocial story). After hearing the story, participants played a dictator game with dried meat sticks and then were given a recall test of facts presented in the story. There was moderate evidence for a small effect of the prosocial story: participants who heard the prosocial story gave an estimated 0.22 [90% HDI: -0.12-0.57] more meat sticks than those who heard the control story. However, the association between generosity and sex, marital status, and region of residence was stronger; men gave more than women, unmarried participants gave more than married participants, and participants living in a region with more exposure to markets gave more than participants living further from markets. There was no evidence that the prosocial story was more easily recalled than the control story. These results provide some support for the hypothesis that prosocial stories can increase prosociality in listeners, though the effect of hearing a single story is small.

Animal biodiversity and specificity in children's picture books

While animal biodiversity is declining globally, cultural representations of animals are highly prevalent in society and play an increasing part in shaping children's perceptions of animal diversity. We studied animal portrayals in children's picture books in the Netherlands, and coded over 2,200 animals from 217 award-winning books. We found a strong bias toward vertebrates, mammals in particular. Mammals were featured more often than other animals, played more prominent roles in the story, and were visually and textually specified more strongly. Furthermore, exotic and domestic species outnumbered native species. Picture books currently are likely to reinforce children's perceptions toward only a small part of animal biodiversity. While we realize that picture books have other primary aims, picture book makers could be inspired and encouraged to diversify and specify their portrayals of the natural world. This would broaden children's perceptions of the animal kingdom and could help foster lasting connections to biodiversity.

How Do Children Socially Learn from Narrative Fiction: Getting the Lesson, Simulating Social Worlds, or Dialogic Inquiry?

Educators read narrative fiction with children not only to promote their literacy skills, but also to support their sociomoral development. However, different approaches strongly diverge in their explanations and recommended instructional activities. Informed by theoretical understandings of reader-text transactions, this integrative review presents three different conceptions about how children learn socially from narrative fiction. The first approach explains sociomoral learning through narrative fiction by children’s extraction and internalization of the text’s moral message. The second approach refers to children’s training of mindreading and empathy as they become immersed in a fictional social world and imaginatively engage with the fictional characters’ perspectives. The third approach focuses on children’s social reasoning development through engagement in argumentative dialogues with peers about the complex sociomoral issues raised in narrative fiction. The article aims to theoretically position a wide range of literary programs to clarify their psychological foundations as well as critically discuss their strengths and limitations.

Children simultaneously learn multiple dimensions of information during shared book reading

Picture books inherently contain many parallel dimensions of information and serve as a rich source of input for children. However, studies of children's learning from picture books tend to focus on a single type of information (e.g., novel words). To better understand the learning-related potential of shared book reading, we examined 4.5- to 5.5-year-old children's simultaneous learning of novel words, moral lessons, and story details from a reading interaction with a parent. Results showed that children successfully learned new words, extracted a moral lesson, and recalled story details from the picture book. Contrary to expectations, children's learning was equally strong regardless of whether or not parents were prompted to focus on learning as the key purpose of book reading. This research demonstrates that children learn diverse information presented across different time scales from picture books.

Learning to Wait and Be Altruistic: Testing A Conversational Training in Economic Education for Primary School Children

Individual economic competence is important but increasingly challenging to manage due to the growing complexity of the nature of economic decisions people must make and the substantial impacts of some of these decisions on their lives. Decision-making ability develops from childhood and is closely related to specific economic components and prosocial behaviour such as fairness, altruism, and delay of gratification. However, while there are financial-education programs for children and young people focusing on financial products, few studies have examined training for the psychological abilities underlying economic decision-making. To promote those psychological skills that contribute to a more socially effective decision-making, we designed and tested a conversational-based training program for primary school children using reflective thinking. A total of 110 (male = 47, female = 63) children aged 8 to 10 years (Mean age = 9.71 years) from two schools in Northern Italy participated in the study with 55 children in a training group and 55 in a control group. All participated in pre-tests measuring their socio-economic background and economics-related skills and abilities. The training group were told stories relaying values of fairness, altruism, and delayed gratification. Both groups participated in task-based post-tests relating to fairness, altruism, and delayed gratification. Results revealed that children in the training group showed significant improvement at the post-test in altruistic and investment behaviour, showing the training efficacy, suggesting that similar programs could be implemented in primary schools as foundational teaching of economics and fiscal responsibility.

Turn the Page, Speech-Language Pathologists: Adequate, Authentic, and Accurate Representation as a Consideration in the Selection of Picture Books for Use in Treatment

Purpose This tutorial discusses what it means to be a culturally responsive speech-language pathologist (SLP) and then grounds this discussion in strategies that SLPs can engage in to diversify the books and other materials that they use in clinical practice. Method We motivate the tutorial by reviewing policy statements and theoretical information from allied literature. Then, we suggest some ways that SLPs can reflect on their practice to enact an antiracist/culturally responsive approach to treatment, taking the selection of children's literature up as a particular example. We identified strategies that have been suggested across a variety of fields and illustrate these strategies with examples. We both provide recommendations for how to select picture books and also suggest ways to implement these suggestions with accountability. Conclusions There is a need for SLPs to reflect on how to be culturally responsive in their practice and to review their materials selection practices with regard to how materials reflect the composition of their caseloads. As a predominantly White profession serving diverse caseloads, we have an ethical obligation to review our choice of materials and align them with culturally responsive practices.

Whitewashing Nature: Sanitized Depictions of Biology in Children's Books and Parent-Child Conversation

The biological world includes many negatively valenced activities, like predation, parasitism, and disease. Do children's books cover these activities? And how do parents discuss them with their children? In a content analysis of children's nature books (Study 1), we found that negatively valenced concepts were rarely depicted across genres and reading levels. When parents encountered negative information in books (Studies 2-3), they did not omit it but rather elaborated on it, adding their own comments and questions, and their children (ages 3-11) were more likely to remember the negative information but less likely to generalize that information beyond the animal in the book. These findings suggest that early input relevant to biological competition may hamper children's developing understanding of ecology and evolution.

Overheard conversations can influence children's generosity

Understanding the factors that promote the development of generosity has both theoretical and practical importance. This study examines one potential influence: overheard conversations that contain evaluative statements about the behavior of others that were described as widely shared opinions. In Study 1 (N = 120), younger (mean age 4.1 years old) and older (mean age 5.9 years old) participants overheard two adults discuss a target child's act of generosity, and in a between-subjects manipulation, the conversation included either praise for the target child, or criticism. Participants in the older group were more likely to behave generously on a distribution task if the overheard conversation involved praise rather than criticism, but the participants in the younger group showed no such effect. Study 2 (N = 150) and Study 3 (N = 60) were preregistered follow-up studies that included older children only (a 5-year-old group). Study 2 showed that children were again more likely to share after overhearing a conversation in which an individual who behaved generously was described in favorable terms, and the same effect was seen when the overheard conversation involved criticism of an individual who did not share. The procedure of Study 3 matched that of Study 1, except the distributions were made in private, and the overheard conversation effect was seen once again. These findings suggest that by age 5, children can use information they hear about individuals who are not present to guide their own behavior, and that overheard evaluative comments can promote generosity.

The effect of object similarity and alignment of examples on children's learning and transfer from picture books

Story picture books with examples can be used to teach young children science concepts. Learners can abstract relational information by comparing the analogical examples in the books, leading to a more abstract transferrable understanding of the concept. The purpose of this study was to determine whether manipulating the content or arrangement of the examples included in a picture book would support children's generalization and transfer of a relational concept, namely color camouflage. In total, 81 3-year-olds and 80 4-year-olds were read one of four books at two visits spaced approximately 1 week apart. Examples were manipulated in a 2 (Object Similarity: high or low) × 2 (Arrangement: interleaved or blocked) design. At each visit, children were asked forced-choice questions with photographs (generalization) and real animals (transfer) and needed to explain their choices. At the first visit, only 3-year-olds who had been read a book with high object similarity displayed generalization and transfer. After they were read the same book again at the second visit, 3-year-olds in all conditions performed above chance on generalization questions but made more correct selections if they had been read the books with blocked examples. The 4-year-olds showed no book-related differences on forced-choice questions at either visit but gave better explanations at the second visit if they had been read interleaved books. Our study provides evidence that picture books with analogical examples can be used to teach children about science but that different types and arrangements of examples may better support children at different ages and with different amounts of prior experience.

Preschoolers' choices of television characters as sources of information: Effects of character type, format, and topic domain

Educational television (TV) for preschoolers often features unrealistic (anthropomorphic and/or animated) characters, and it is unclear how children perceive such characters as sources of information. In this study, 92 3- to 5-year-olds saw images of characters and chose which would be best for learning about six topics across three domains: animal biology, human biology, and socioemotional. Children were randomized to one of three conditions in which they chose between paired images of (1) live-action humans versus animated humans (i.e., holding character type constant and varying format), (2) animated humans versus animated anthropomorphic animals (i.e., holding format constant and varying character type), or (3) live-action humans versus animated anthropomorphic animals (i.e., most realistic vs. least realistic character choices). Results indicated that children chose animated characters over live-action characters (Conditions 1 and 3). They did not choose humans significantly more often than animals even for human biology and socioemotional lessons (Conditions 2 and 3). However, in Condition 2, they chose animals significantly more often than humans for animal biology lessons. In sum, children showed little sign of prioritizing realism. The study adds children's perspectives to the literature on the effects of reality cues on early learning from educational TV.

You can['t] catch the sun in a net!: Children's misinterpretations of educational science television

Many science television shows feature refutation narratives where characters speculate about the value of scientific misconceptions (e.g., the sun circles the earth) before learning factual information. Previous research suggests that young children misunderstand these stories, and the current study examined whether learning could be improved using interventions previously validated with adults. Children (N = 201) aged 4-7 years viewed a refutation narrative in its original form or in a modified format that lacked misconceptions or that contextualized those misconceptions with additional scaffolds. Although children's comprehension of factual information was high across all conditions, their understanding of misconceptions depended on their prior knowledge. Specifically, children with low prior knowledge mistakenly identified misconceptions as intended factual lessons unless they viewed the story without misconceptions or with two forms of additional scaffolding. Conversely, children with high prior knowledge understood the original story best. These findings suggest that the inclusion of fantasy ideas in children's science programming can disrupt learning for certain children and bolster learning for others.

The moral, or the story? Changing children's distributive justice preferences through social communication

Can social communication alter children's preexisting inclinations toward equality-based or merit-based forms of resource distribution? Six- to eight-year-old children's (N = 248) fairness preferences were evaluated with third-party distribution tasks before and after an intervention. Study 1 indicated that stories about beavers dividing wood had no impact on children's fairness preferences, while Study 2 indicated that brief, direct testimony was highly influential. Study 3 matched storybooks and testimony in content, with each discussing a situation resembling the distribution task, and both formats exerted a significant impact on children's fairness preferences that persisted across several weeks. There were some indications that interventions preaching the superiority of equality-based fairness were particularly effective, but there were no differences between reason-based and emotion-based interventions. Overall, storybooks and testimony can powerfully and enduringly change children's existing distributive justice preferences, as long as the moral lessons that are conveyed are easily transferable to children's real-world contexts.

The friendly fossa: The effect of anthropomorphic language on learning about unfamiliar animals through both storybooks and live animal experiences

Children's storybooks about animals often use elements of fantasy; even educational storybooks intended to teach children about factual and biological properties include talking animals depicted as more like humans than animals. Previous research has found that anthropomorphic images, specifically in storybooks, hinder factual learning and thus should not be used in the context of educational experiences. However, little research has explored the impact of anthropomorphic language alone as well as its use in other contexts such as zoos where parents often naturally use anthropomorphic language. The current studies explored the impact of anthropomorphic language on learning about an unfamiliar animal (fossa) across two contexts: storybooks (Study 1; N = 48; age range = 4;0-6;3 [years; months]) and a zoo (Study 2a; N = 29; age range = 4;5-7;10). An adult comparison group (Study 2b, N = 82) was also included. Across both studies, there was no evidence that anthropomorphic language decreased factual learning. However, children given anthropomorphic information about a fossa were more likely to generalize anthropomorphic traits, such as emotions, intentions, and preferences, to other fossas, and this was consistent with the adult comparison group. We discuss considerations for parents and educators regarding the appropriateness of fantastical language about animals in experiences specifically designed to support biological learning.

The development and consequences of moral essentialism

Children report that many natural kinds, social groups, and psychological characteristics arise from an innate, internal "essence" that is rooted in biology and remains stable over time. These perceptions persist into adulthood, albeit often in weakened form. This chapter argues that in addition to the domains previously examined in the essentialism literature, children-and to some extent adults-also view moral characteristics in essentialist terms. This form of essentialism has important social consequences, including in the area of prosocial behavior and in the legal domain. The body of evidence reviewed here suggests that children's and adults' moral judgments depend not just on what people do but also on perceptions of who those people are, i.e., whether they are people of good or bad moral character.

Anthropomorphism in comparative affective science: Advocating a mindful approach

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human-like capacities and traits to non-human entities. Anthropomorphism is ubiquitous in everyday life and in scientific domains, operating both implicitly and explicitly as a function of the human lens through which we view the world. A rich history of work in psychology, animal behavior, cognitive science, and philosophy has highlighted the negative and, to a lesser degree, the positive implications of anthropomorphism. In this article, we aim to provide a nuanced perspective of how anthropomorphism impacts the work of comparative affective science. Specifically, we discuss three domains of empirical inquiry in which lessons can be drawn about the benefits and pitfalls of anthropomorphism: responses to death, inequity aversion, and prosocial behavior. On balance, we advocate a mindful approach to anthropomorphizing in comparative affective science, and comparative science more generally.

Paying Back People Who Harmed Us but Not People Who Helped Us: Direct Negative Reciprocity Precedes Direct Positive Reciprocity in Early Development

The principle of direct reciprocity, or paying back specific individuals, is assumed to be a critical component of everyday social exchange and a key mechanism for the evolution of cooperation. Young children know the norm of reciprocity, but it is unclear whether they follow the norm for both positive and negative direct reciprocity or whether reciprocity is initially generalized. Across five experiments ( N = 330), we showed that children between 4 and 8 years of age engaged in negative direct reciprocity but generalized positive reciprocity, despite recalling benefactors. Children did not endorse the norm of positive direct reciprocity as applying to them until about 7 years of age (Study 4), but a short social-norm training enhanced this behavior in younger children (Study 5). Results suggest that negative direct reciprocity develops early, whereas positive reciprocity becomes targeted to other specific individuals only as children learn and adopt social norms.

The Development of Anthropomorphism in Interaction: Intersubjectivity, Imagination, and Theory of Mind

Human beings frequently attribute anthropomorphic features, motivations and behaviors to animals, artifacts, and natural phenomena. Historically, many interpretations of this attitude have been provided within different disciplines. What most interpretations have in common is distinguishing children’s manifestations of this attitude, which are considered “natural,” from adults’ occurrences, which must be explained by resorting to particular circumstances. In this article, I argue that anthropomorphism is not grounded in specific belief systems but rather in interaction. In interaction, a non-human entity assumes a place that generally is attributed to a human interlocutor, which means that it is independent of the beliefs that people may have about the nature and features of the entities that are anthropomorphized. This perspective allows us to explain the problems that emerge if we consider anthropomorphism as a belief: (i) adults under certain circumstances may anthropomorphize entities even if they perfectly know that these entities have no mental life; (ii) according to the situation, the same entity may be anthropomorphized or treated as an object; (iii) there is no consistency among the entities that are anthropomorphized; (iv) there is individual variability in anthropomorphization, and this variability derives from affective states rather than from different degrees of knowledge about the entity that is anthropomorphized or greater or lesser naivety of the person who anthropomorphizes. From this perspective, anthropomorphism is a basic human attitude that begins in infants and persists throughout life. The difference between adults and children is not qualitative but rather a matter of complexity.

The Role of Book Features in Young Children's Transfer of Information from Picture Books to Real-World Contexts

Picture books are an important source of new language, concepts, and lessons for young children. A large body of research has documented the nature of parent-child interactions during shared book reading. A new body of research has begun to investigate the features of picture books that support children's learning and transfer of that information to the real world. In this paper, we discuss how children's symbolic development, analogical reasoning, and reasoning about fantasy may constrain their ability to take away content information from picture books. We then review the nascent body of findings that has focused on the impact of picture book features on children's learning and transfer of words and letters, science concepts, problem solutions, and morals from picture books. In each domain of learning we discuss how children's development may interact with book features to impact their learning. We conclude that children's ability to learn and transfer content from picture books can be disrupted by some book features and research should directly examine the interaction between children's developing abilities and book characteristics on children's learning.