Poster #56 - Children Consider Prosocial and Reputational Motivations in Evaluations of Socially Mindful Actions

• In Event: Poster Session 15

Abstract

Both adults and children by age 6 appreciate socially-mindful actions where one leaves a choice for others (Van Doesum et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2021). However, one can perform socially mindful actions with different motivations, for example genuine prosocial motivation or reputational motivation. Here we investigate whether children consider the underlying motivation when evaluating (non-) socially mindful actions.
Ninety-nine children (Age: 6-11) and 99 adults were randomly assigned to evaluate two characters who both perform socially mindful actions, leaving two diverse items for others (i.e., SoMi condition), or two characters who both perform non-socially mindful actions, leaving two identical items for others (i.e., non-SoMi condition). In each condition, one character was asked to select the item in a public context (i.e., the public character), while the other character was asked to select the item in a private context (i.e., the private character). Participants were first asked about their spontaneous comparative evaluations of the two characters. Then the characters’ motivations were explicitly revealed, that the public character acted that way because she just wanted to let the friend know that she left a choice (or no choice), while the character in the private context did so because she really wanted to leave a choice (or no choice) for her friend. Then participants were again asked about their comparative evaluations of two characters (See Figure 1).
For children, we ran a linear mixed effects model with condition (SoMi, non-SoMi), measure (spontaneous, after motivation was revealed) and age. We found a significant main effect of the measure (p < .001), and a significant measure X condition interaction (p < .001). No effects of age were found (ps > .600). Specifically, children spontaneously favored the public character both in SoMi and non-SoMi conditions, but after motivation was provided, they instead favored the private character in the SoMi condition. A similar model with adults revealed main effects of measure (p < .001), condition (p = .037), and a significant measure X condition interaction (p < .001). Specifically, in SoMi condition, different from children, adults spontaneously favored the private character, and even more so after motivation was revealed. In non-SoMi condition, adults did not evaluate the two characters differently. A model combining child and adult data found a significant difference between children and adults (p < .001) that children in general favored the public character more than adults. Also, there was an age group X measure interaction (p = .008), that adults favored the private character more than children only when asked spontaneously (B = 17.68, p < .001), but not after the motivation was revealed (p = .702).
In summary, both children and adults consider motivations when evaluating socially-mindful behaviors, but motivations are not as important when evaluating non-mindful behaviors. Also, though adults spontaneously recognize the genuine prosocial motivation of those who act prosocially privately, children instead favor those who act publicly whatsoever (See Figure 2). Our findings contribute to our knowledge of children’s evaluation of social mindful behaviors and the underlying motivations.

Authors

• Yuhan Wang, Beijing Normal University
  Presenting Author

• Xin Alice Zhao, East China Normal University