Development of altruism in preschoolers:From empathic concern to compliance with fairness norms
The development of altruism plays a crucial role in social development.The emergence may involve transitioning from empathic concern-driven to norm-driven;that is,altruistic acts in preschool children may shift from"I help others because I feel sympathy and concern for them"to"Helping is not only a good behavior but also a norm that I must obey."This study investigated how empathic concern influences the development of altruism in preschool children,including their altruistic allocation and altruistic punishment.We recruited 240 children aged 3 to 6 years old.Experiment 1 used the dictator game paradigm in which children acted as distributors and could decide how to allocate sweets to their partner,who,as a responder,had no right to refuse the allocation.We used this paradigm to examine how empathic concern directed at responders affects children's altruistic allocation behavior.Experiment 2 used the ultimatum game in which children acted as responders to the unfair allocation offered by the selfish distributor and could choose to accept or reject it.We used this paradigm to examine how empathic concern directed at unfair distributors influences preschoolers'altruistic punishment towards them.We found that empathic concern promotes altruistic allocation in 3-6-year-old preschoolers.In addition,our results showed that children aged 5-6 years were more likely to engage in equal distribution in the empathic concern condition.This result reflects the development of both altruism and fairness concern in older children;that is,they were able to consider the needs and welfare of others and sacrifice some of their own interests to engage in altruistic distributive behaviors that are not only beneficial to others but also consistent with norms of fairness.However,there are age differences in the effect of empathic concern on altruistic punishment.Specifically,children as young as 3-4 years of age showed more altruistic distributive behavior in the empathy induction condition than in the control condition.However,they were less likely to engage in altruistic punishment than older children in both the control and empathy induction conditions.These findings suggest that self-interest still plays a dominant role in the decision-making processes of 3-4-year-olds,making them less likely to follow and uphold fairness norms.At the age of 4-5,children's altruistic behavior is primarily motivated by empathic concern.When empathic concern was directed towards unfair distributors,they were less likely to engage in altruistic punishment towards such offenders than in the control condition.However,by the age of 5-6,children's altruistic acts are guided mainly by fairness norms.Their empathic concern did not affect their altruistic punishment.In both the control and empathy induction conditions,their altruistic punishment remained impartial.The development of altruism in preschool children undergoes a transition from being driven by empathic concern to being driven by fairness norms.These findings have important implications for understanding the motives that shape altruism in early childhood.
万方数据
维普
