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Weltzien S, Marsh L, Kanngiesser P, Hood B. Young dictators-Speaking about oneself decreases generosity in children from two cultural contexts. PLoS One 2024; 19:e0300200. [PMID: 38452146 PMCID: PMC10919844 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2023] [Accepted: 02/23/2024] [Indexed: 03/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Sharing of resources is a common feature of human societies. Yet, there is substantial societal variation in children's generosity, and this variation emerges during middle childhood. Societal differences in self-construal orientation may be one factor influencing the ontogeny of generosity. Here, we examine anonymous Dictator Game sharing in 7-and-8-year-olds from two distinct societies: India and the UK (N = 180). We used self-construal manipulations to investigate whether priming self- or other-focused conversations would differentially influence children's generosity. There were no differences in generosity between populations. While a significant reduction in generosity was found following self-priming in both societies, other-priming was ineffectual. The findings are discussed in relation to experimental features and the role of anonymity and reputational concerns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Weltzien
- Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | - Lauren Marsh
- Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
| | | | - Bruce Hood
- Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
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Probst S, Nowack A, Warneken F. Children's moral reasoning about self- versus other-benefiting public health measures. J Exp Child Psychol 2023; 229:105623. [PMID: 36696739 PMCID: PMC9868488 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2022.105623] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/24/2022] [Revised: 12/19/2022] [Accepted: 12/31/2022] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced novel public health measures such as masking and social distancing. In adults, framing these behaviors as benefiting others versus the self has been shown to affect people's perceptions of public health measures and willingness to comply. Here we asked whether self- versus other-oriented frames of novel public health measures influence children's endorsement and moral reasoning. Children aged 5 to 10 years viewed hypothetical dilemmas of aliens in which we manipulated the frame (other-oriented or self-oriented) of the prevention behavior and the severity (high or low) of the potential harm. Across two studies (Study 1: N = 48; Study 2: N = 61), results showed that across ages framing the behaviors as other-oriented, but not self-oriented, yielded more positive ratings of individuals who followed the public health measures and more negative ratings of those who did not. Across both frames, children generally endorsed these public health measures when the severity was high. Children used more moralizing concepts in other-oriented frames and were more critical of intentional transgressions over accidental transgressions, demonstrating further evidence that other-oriented frames induce moral reasoning. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these framing effects for sociomoral reasoning and action.
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Dys SP, Jambon M, Buono S, Malti T. Attentional Control Moderates the Relation between Sympathy and Ethical Guilt. J Genet Psychol 2023; 184:198-211. [PMID: 36803666 DOI: 10.1080/00221325.2023.2177522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/22/2023]
Abstract
In response to ethical transgressions, some children respond with ethical guilt (e.g., remorse), while others do not. The affective and cognitive precursors of ethical guilt have been widely studied on their own, however, few studies have looked at the interaction of affective (e.g., sympathy) and cognitive (e.g., attention) precursors on ethical guilt. This study examined the effects of children's sympathy, attentional control, and their interaction on 4 and 6-year-old children's ethical guilt. A sample of 118 children (50% girls, 4-year-olds: Mage = 4.58, SD = .24, n = 57; 6-year-old: Mage = 6.52, SD = .33, n = 61) completed an attentional control task and provided self-reports of dispositional sympathy and ethical guilt in response to hypothetical ethical violations. Sympathy and attentional control were not directly associated with ethical guilt. Attentional control, however, moderated the relation between sympathy and ethical guilt, such that sympathy was more strongly related to ethical guilt at increasing levels of attentional control. This interaction did not differ between 4- and 6-year-olds or boys and girls. These findings illustrate an interaction between emotion and cognitive processes and suggest that promoting children's ethical development may require a focus on both attentional control and sympathy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sebastian P Dys
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Marc Jambon
- Department of Psychology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Stephanie Buono
- Department of Applied Psychology, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Tina Malti
- Centre for Child Development, Mental Health, and Policy, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
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Zubek J, Nagórska E, Komorowska-Mach J, Skowrońska K, Zieliński K, Rączaszek-Leonardi J. Dynamics of Remote Communication: Movement Coordination in Video-Mediated and Face-to-Face Conversations. ENTROPY 2022; 24:e24040559. [PMID: 35455222 PMCID: PMC9031538 DOI: 10.3390/e24040559] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2022] [Revised: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 04/11/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
The present pandemic forced our daily interactions to move into the virtual world. People had to adapt to new communication media that afford different ways of interaction. Remote communication decreases the availability and salience of some cues but also may enable and highlight others. Importantly, basic movement dynamics, which are crucial for any interaction as they are responsible for the informational and affective coupling, are affected. It is therefore essential to discover exactly how these dynamics change. In this exploratory study of six interacting dyads we use traditional variability measures and cross recurrence quantification analysis to compare the movement coordination dynamics in quasi-natural dialogues in four situations: (1) remote video-mediated conversations with a self-view mirror image present, (2) remote video-mediated conversations without a self-view, (3) face-to-face conversations with a self-view, and (4) face-to-face conversations without a self-view. We discovered that in remote interactions movements pertaining to communicative gestures were exaggerated, while the stability of interpersonal coordination was greatly decreased. The presence of the self-view image made the gestures less exaggerated, but did not affect the coordination. The dynamical analyses are helpful in understanding the interaction processes and may be useful in explaining phenomena connected with video-mediated communication, such as “Zoom fatigue”.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julian Zubek
- Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland; (E.N.); (J.K.-M.); (K.S.); (K.Z.); (J.R.-L.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Ewa Nagórska
- Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland; (E.N.); (J.K.-M.); (K.S.); (K.Z.); (J.R.-L.)
| | - Joanna Komorowska-Mach
- Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland; (E.N.); (J.K.-M.); (K.S.); (K.Z.); (J.R.-L.)
- Faculty of Philosophy, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Skowrońska
- Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland; (E.N.); (J.K.-M.); (K.S.); (K.Z.); (J.R.-L.)
| | - Konrad Zieliński
- Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland; (E.N.); (J.K.-M.); (K.S.); (K.Z.); (J.R.-L.)
| | - Joanna Rączaszek-Leonardi
- Human Interactivity and Language Lab, Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland; (E.N.); (J.K.-M.); (K.S.); (K.Z.); (J.R.-L.)
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Moral in the future, better now: Moral licensing versus behavioral priming in children and the moderating role of psychological distance. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03063-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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Somogyi E, Tran TTU, Guellai B, Király I, Esseily R. The effect of language on prosocial behaviors in preschool children. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0240028. [PMID: 33022022 PMCID: PMC7537885 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2019] [Accepted: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study investigated how linguistic group membership influences prosocial behaviors, namely helpfulness and cooperation, in preschool children. Whilst research indicates that children preferentially direct their prosocial behavior towards members of their own groups, the influence of perceived linguistic group membership on actual helpfulness and cooperation has not been investigated. We presented an experimenter to 4- and 5-year-olds either as a foreigner, who did not speak the local language or as a native person. Children were then given the opportunity to help or cooperate with this experimenter in a series of nonverbal playful tasks. Whilst 4-year-olds helped and cooperated equally with the foreign and the native experimenter, 5-year-olds required significantly more cues and prompts in order to help or cooperate in the foreign condition. We also found that children were overall more reluctant to respond prosocially in the cooperation tasks than in the helping tasks. We tested children in two European countries (France and Hungary) and found the same pattern of responses in the two locations, suggesting that our findings are not specific to the local culture. Our results extend the findings of earlier research that showed selectivity according to the language spoken by the partner for sharing and imitation. Studies that looked at helpfulness or cooperation used the minimal group paradigm to induce group membership (based on arbitrary cues) and used indirect measures of prosociality, such as different forms of reasoning about the partner. In our study, we used language, a natural cue for group membership (versus arbitrary cues or cues based on social conventions) and directly observed children's helpful and cooperative behaviors toward the experimenter. Our results also confirm previous results indicating that with age, children become selective in their prosocial behaviors as they acquire new means of social evaluation and categorization. We conclude that the language associated with a potential social partner is not only a cue for affiliation and shared knowledge but also a cue mediating children's prosocial acts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eszter Somogyi
- Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, United Kingdom
| | - Thuy Tuong Uyen Tran
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Bahia Guellai
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
| | - Ildikó Király
- Hungarian Academy of Sciences - Eötvös Loránd University Social Minds Research Group, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Rana Esseily
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University Paris Nanterre, Nanterre, France
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Weltzien S, Marsh L, Kanngiesser P, Stuijfzand B, Hood B. Considering self or others across two cultural contexts: How children's resource allocation is affected by self-construal manipulations. J Exp Child Psychol 2019; 184:139-157. [PMID: 31034994 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.04.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2018] [Revised: 03/27/2019] [Accepted: 04/03/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Most humans share to some degree. Yet, from middle childhood, sharing behavior varies substantially across societies. Here, for the first time, we explored the effect of self-construal manipulation on sharing decisions in 7- and 8-year-old children from two distinct societies: urban India and urban United Kingdom. Children participated in one of three conditions that focused attention on independence, interdependence, or a control. Sharing was then assessed across three resource allocation games. A focus on independence resulted in reduced generosity in both societies. However, an intriguing societal difference emerged following a focus on interdependence, where only Indian children from traditional extended families displayed greater generosity in one of the resource allocation games. Thus, a focus on independence can move children from diverse societies toward selfishness with relative ease, but a focus on interdependence is very limited in its effectiveness to promote generosity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandra Weltzien
- Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK.
| | - Lauren Marsh
- Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK; School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
| | - Patricia Kanngiesser
- Faculty of Education and Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Bobby Stuijfzand
- Jean Golding Institute for Data-Intensive Research, Royal Fort House, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UH, UK
| | - Bruce Hood
- Bristol Cognitive Development Centre, School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TU, UK
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Beijers R, Cassidy J, Lustermans H, de Weerth C. Parent-Infant Room Sharing During the First Months of Life: Longitudinal Links With Behavior During Middle Childhood. Child Dev 2018; 90:1350-1367. [PMID: 30238442 PMCID: PMC7379577 DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Current recommendations encourage parent–infant room sharing for the first 6 months of life. This longitudinal study (N = 193) is the first to examine long‐term relations of early room sharing with three domains of child behavior: sleep, behavior problems, and prosocial behavior. Information on room sharing was collected daily for infants’ first 6 months. At ages 6, 7, and 8 years, outcomes were assessed with maternal and teacher questionnaires and behavioral observations. Early room sharing was not related to sleep problems or behavior problems. Additionally, more weeks of room sharing were positively related to higher maternal ratings of child sleep quality and more prosocial behavior. In conclusion, early room sharing appears to be related to positive, but not negative, behavior outcomes in middle childhood.
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