Studying elevation in early childhood

• In Event: 3-186 - Feeling good and being good: Conceptual and empirical links between positive emotions and morality

Integrative Statement

When others are helped, humans experience the positive emotion of elevation. It is described as an uplifting feeling that results from seeing prosociality in others (Haidt, 2000). Adults who report feeling elevated are more motivated to help others (Schnall, Roper, & Fessler, 2010). The expression of positive emotions such as elevation thus provides a tangible means to assess the underlying reward mechanisms of prosocial behaviour, especially in early ontogeny. However, to date only few studies have assessed positive emotions in the context of children helping others (Aknin, Van de Vondervoort, & Hamlin, 2018).

In two studies, we measured preschoolers’ elevation via changes in their upper-body posture using depth sensor imaging technology. This method build on previous work showing that 2-year-old children’s upper-body posture increased after they helped others (Hepach, Vaish, & Tomasello, 2015, 2017b).

In Study 1, pairs of 4-year-old children (n = 64) retrieved round containers from an apparatus that contained either stickers which children could collect to take home or dull objects. The apparatus was rigged such that one child collected 4 stickers (non-needy child) while the second child had merely collected 1 sticker (needy child). An adult experimenter then either helped the non-needy child (incongruent condition) or the needy-child (congruent condition) to retrieve an additional sticker. Needy children showed an increase in upper-body posture when they were helped and a decrease in posture when they were not helped. On the other hand, the non-needy children showed an elevated body posture after not being helped but seeing the needy child receive the sticker reward. In addition, the non-needy children showed lowered body posture when they were helped but the needy child was not, GLMM: 𝛘2(1) = 4.49, p = .03 (see Fig. 1).

In Study 2 we investigated preschoolers’ postural elevation after helping others at a cost or at no cost to themselves. Five-year-old children (n = 40 of anticipated 64) could either help an adult to complete a task or observe the adult carrying out an activity (between-subjects factor). Within subjects we varied whether the child had to pay a cost to help (to observe) or not. In the costly condition children were engaged in a game which required them to balance a wooded board while simultaneously placing marbles on it to complete a pattern. Getting up from the activity meant that children’s progress was lost forcing them to start all over once they returned to the game. Preliminary first trial analyses suggest that children’s posture was more elevated after helping even when helping was costly. On the other hand, paying a cost to merely watch an adult complete a task resulted in lowered upper-body posture.

Together these results suggest that children express a positive emotion akin to elevation after seeing others get the help they deserve and after helping others even if helping comes at a cost to children themselves. These findings contribute to our understanding of the underlying reward mechanisms of children’s prosociality.

Author

• Robert Hepach, Leipzig University
  Presenting Author