Common knowledge that help is needed increases helping behavior in children
Date
01/2021Author
Keywords
Metadata
Show full item recordAltmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
Although there is considerable evidence that at least some helping behavior is motivated by genuine concern for others’ well-being, sometimes we also help solely out of a sense of obligation to the persons in need. Our sense of obligation to help may be particularly strong when there is common knowledge between the helper and the helpee that the helpee needs help. To test whether children’s helping behavior is affected by having common knowledge with the recipient about the recipient’s need, 6-year-olds faced a dilemma: They could either collect stickers or help an experimenter. Children were more likely to help when they and the experimenter had common knowledge about the experimenter’s plight (because they heard it together) than when they each had private knowledge about it (because they heard it individually). These results suggest that already in young children common knowledge can heighten the sense of obligation to help others in need.
Citation
Siposova , B , Grueneisen , S , Helming , K , Tomasello , M & Carpenter , M 2021 , ' Common knowledge that help is needed increases helping behavior in children ' , Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , vol. 201 , 104973 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104973
Publication
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0022-0965Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104973
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.