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Poster #140 - Helping, Sharing, and Comforting in a Cross Cultural Context

Fri, March 22, 7:45 to 9:15am, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Acting on behalf of others is a frequent, universal human tendency. Over the last decade, we have made great strides in identifying the diversity of ways individuals can act on behalf of others, early in development (e.g., Warneken, 2018). Recently, Dunfield (2014) proposed that within the broad domain of prosocial behaviour there are three specific acts that differ based on the negative state that the prosocial individual is recognizing and responding to: Helping which involves recognizing and responding to an instrumental need, sharing which involves recognizing and responding to material desire, and comforting which involves recognizing and responding to emotional distress. By distinguishing between the three varieties of negative states and focusing on the initial assessment the child is forced to make researchers have demonstrated unique ages of onset, with helping and sharing preceding comforting (Dunfield et al., 2011 Brownell/Svetlova/Paulus), unique developmental trajectories and uncorrelated patterns of production (Dunfield & Kuhlmeier, 2013; Eisenberg, Eggum et al., 2015; Sommerville et al., 2013), and variability associated with individual differences (Gross et al. 2018; Dunfield & Johnson, 2015; cf Schachner et al., 2018). Recently, researchers have expanded the examination to include a diversity of sociocultural contexts to better understand how culture interacts with cognitive development to support prosociality.
The current study is part of a mixed-method examination of the development of prosocial behaviour in 3-6 year olds in rural Mexico (N = 133, Mage = 62 months, 71 female) and urban Canada (N = 148, Mage = 53 months, 72 female). Participants saw six prosocial trials, three in which the Experimenter was experiencing a problem (i.e., an instrumental need, material desire, or emotional distress), and three in which the experimenter was behaving similarly but not experiencing a problem. Prosocial behaviours were coded as any attempt to alleviate the Experimenter’s negative state (see Dunfield et al., 2011).
Consistent with previous research, children were more likely to respond prosocially when needs were present than when needs were absent, regardless of problem type (ps < .001). Participants in urban Canada produced more prosocial behaviour overall than participants in rural Mexio (p < .001), however, the relative frequency of each variety of prosocial behaviour was similar across cultures: Helping occurred most frequently, followed by comforting, and then sharing. These results suggest both stability and variability in prosociality across culture and speak to the complex, intersecting developmental influences underlying this important skill. Moreover, these results inform a growing debate regarding the nature of the motivation underlying the tendency to act on behalf of others and the role of socialization in the production of early other-oriented acts.

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