Intergroup Helping during Childhood and Adolescence: Antecedents, Motivations, and Consequences

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Prosocial behavior is generally socially accepted, but may not be judged positively when individuals choose to help outgroup members. Helping outgroups can be a complex decision as it requires that weighing of concerns for one’s own group interests and concerns for fairness, justice, and other’s well-being (Rutland & Killen, 2017). The set of studies presented in this symposium highlight the multitude of factors impacting outgroup helping but also examine these issues across multiple intergroup contexts. For instance, the first paper investigated the antecedents of intergroup helping, by focusing on outgroup-specific empathy in children belonging to groups with a history of violent conflict (Serbs and Croats). This paper emphasized the role of general empathy and intergroup contact in predicting empathy toward outgroups. The second, paper examined emotion attributions and reasoning in a prosocial intergroup context among refugee and non-refugee children in Canada. The findings suggest that emotions can be motivators for outgroup helping. The third paper, explored bystander helping behavior in an immigrant and non-immigrant intergroup context. The findings highlight ethnic minority adolescents’ concerns for other immigrant outgroups (Latinx and Arab immigrants in the US), which may motivate their willingness to intervene to help others experiencing bias-based bullying. The last paper used a novel group intergroup context to investigate the consequences of outgroup helping, emphasizing US children’s and adolescents’ concerns for outgroups in need of help and concerns for their own group. Overall, the papers contribute to our understanding of prosocial behavior aimed at outgroups across an array of intergroup contexts.

Sub Unit

• Diversity, Equity & Social Justice

Chairs

• Aline Hitti, University of San Francisco

• Kelly Lynn S Mulvey, North Carolina State University

Individual Presentations

• The role of intergroup contact in the link from general to out-group specific empathy among children in a conflict-affected country - Presenting Author: Laura K. Taylor, University College Dublin (UCD); Non-Presenting Author: Jasmina Tomašić Humer, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Osijek; Non-Presenting Author: Jocelyn B Dautel, Queen’s University Belfast

• Children’s Emotions and Reasoning After Helping In- Versus Out-Group Peers: Links with Dispositional Prosocial Behavior - Presenting Author: Joanna Peplak, University of California - Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Tina Malti, University of Toronto

• Shared Immigrant Identity and Intentions to Help Victimized Peers - Presenting Author: Kelly Lynn S Mulvey, North Carolina State University; Non-Presenting Author: Aline Hitti, University of San Francisco; Non-Presenting Author: Secil Gonultas, North Carolina State University

• The Consequences of Helping Outgroups - Presenting Author: Aline Hitti, University of San Francisco; Non-Presenting Author: Kelly Lynn S Mulvey, North Carolina State University