How cultural and physical distance shape children’s obligation judgments about prosocial behavior

• In Event: Minimal and real-world social categories shape expectations of prosocial behavior across development

Abstract

A key aspect of our moral psychology involves helping others. From as early as six months of age, infants positively evaluate agents who help others over those who hinder others (Hamlin et al., 2007). Beyond infancy, young children overwhelmingly evaluate helping positively and judge helping as obligatory across a variety of social contexts, such as social relationships (e.g., Marshall et al., 2022). This pattern whereby young children cast a wide net of social obligations appears in other instances as well, including when making decisions about who to save between humans compared to animals (Wilks et al., 2020).
Despite these findings, contrary results have emerged in research examining on how ingroup bias affects children’s social judgments. For example, children consider ingroup members more likely to help one another compared to outgroup members (Chalik & Rhodes, 2020). Beyond expectations, children also consider ingroup members more obligated to help one another than outgroup members when membership varies on the basis of race and gender—a finding that does not appear with age (Weller & Lagattuta, 2013, 2014).
With this research in mind, the present two studies sought to examine children’s (5-to 10-year-olds, n = 207) and adults’ (n = 194) obligation judgments (“does a bystander have to help? Yes or no?”) of prosocial behavior in different contexts. In particular, we aimed to understand how ingroup bias shapes obligation judgments by assessing two different aspects of social life that tend to co-occur with shared group membership, specifically physical distance—whether people are closer or further in proximity—and cultural distance—whether people are a part of the same community. To examine these components, we deployed a 2 (physical distance: close, far) x 2 (cultural distance: close, far) design (Figure 1); the physical distance manipulation was identical across the two studies, whereas the cultural distance manipulation differed between the two studies. In Study 1, children were introduced to individuals who either engaged in similar or dissimilar cultural activities, such as eating similar food. In Study 2, the manipulation was the same but amplified by describing the individuals as explicitly members of the same group.
For physical distance, we found an age effect across both studies (Figure 2). Younger children were far less inclined to consider physical distance compared to older children and adults, who considered individuals more obligated to help someone close than far. For cultural distance, the results were more complicated. When individuals were described as merely similar or dissimilar (Study 1), we found a similar age effect whereby younger children were less sensitive to this manipulation compared to adults. When individuals were explicitly described as group members, the age-related effect no longer emerged: children and adults alike judged group members more obligated to help an ingroup member. These results support the possibility that group membership plays a role in shaping children’s sense of perceived obligation but only when the groups are explicitly defined and not when they are loosely organized via shared preferences.

Authors

• Julia Marshall, Boston College
  Presenting Author

• Matti Wilks, University of Edinburgh