Prosocial = good? Children’s developing evaluations of prosocial actions

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

It is easy to assume that all prosocial acts are good. Indeed, many acts of helping, sharing, and comforting benefit others and are integral to healthy social development. But recent research on children’s evaluations of prosocial actions paint a far more complex picture. This work has shown that children do not view all prosocial acts and agents positively. Rather, children form highly nuanced evaluations of prosocial actions that incorporate features of the agent, recipient, act, and context. These nuanced evaluations—deeming prosocial acts as sometimes good and sometimes wrong—appear to guide children’s decisions about their own prosocial actions as well as their reactions to the actions of others.

This international symposium will showcase advances in research on children’s evaluations of prosocial actions. The first presentation discusses research with German preschoolers on how prosocial evaluations and moral self-concept relate to children’s own comforting and sharing behaviors. The second talk presents data on how U.S. preschoolers’ and their parents evaluate and discuss everyday helping at home. The third presentation investigates age-related changes in how U.S. children evaluate characters who act in prosocial, antisocial, and ambiguous ways. The fourth talk presents data on Dutch children’s evaluations of, and sharing with, others who act in considerate and inconsiderate ways.

The four research programs reveal how children’s evaluations of prosocial acts incorporate a variety of considerations, change with age, and guide children’s own behaviors. The discussion will synthesize these insights and identify questions for future research.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chairs

• Marie Grace S. Martinez, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Audun Dahl, University of California - Santa Cruz

Individual Presentations

• The multidimensionality of the relation between normative views and prosocial behavior in young children - Presenting Author: Natalie Christner, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Lena Anna Soeldner, Ludwigs Maximilians Universität München; Regina Maria Sticker, Ludwig Maximilians University; Markus Paulus, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

• Keep playing or start helping? Young children’s and parents’ judgments about prosocial acts at home - Presenting Author: Marie Grace S. Martinez, University of California - Santa Cruz; Audun Dahl, University of California - Santa Cruz

• Children’s assessment of morally ambiguous characters - Presenting Author: Meltem Yucel, Duke University; Sierra Eisen, Wesleyan University; Jessica A Stern, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Angeline S Lillard, University of Virginia - Charlottesville; Amrisha Vaish, University of Virginia - Charlottesville

• Subtle prosocial choices: Young children evaluate considerate others more positively - Presenting Author: Christel Klootwijk, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Jellie Sierksma, Utrecht University