Poster #125 - Reciprocal Play as a Mechanism in the Socialization of Children’s Altruism

• In Event: 1-061 - Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Reciprocal play is a form of play that involves back-and-forth engagement, such as the rolling of a ball between a child and an adult. Past research has shown that even a brief experience of reciprocal play in a developmental psychology laboratory can trigger considerable altruistic behavior, such as helping and generosity in young children (Barragan & Dweck, 2014). These results were conceptually replicated even in 7.5-month-old infants by an independent laboratory (Xu, Saether, & Sommerville, 2016). Here, we explore the possibility that reciprocal play can serve as a mechanism for the long-term development of altruism in young children. In Study 1, we examined an archival dataset that included a measure of day-to-day reciprocal play. We found that reports of reciprocal play at home directly predicted two- and three-year-olds’ concern for others’, such comforting children who are upset and showing affection toward others. This relationship held even when controlling for other types of physical play, such as chasing games, which did not themselves predict altruism. In Study 2, we found that reciprocal play reported by parents predicted preschool teachers’ reports of altruism in the classroom. In Study 3, we assessed the possibility that long-term experience with reciprocal play could predict different worldviews related to altruism. The results showed that, the more that parents of two- and three-year-old children reported reciprocal play at home (in contrast to other forms of play), the more their children expected people in general to act altruistically toward one another. In turn, the more children had this expectation of their social environment, the more altruism they showed toward strangers. Taken together, the findings suggest that reciprocal play may be a mechanism for the mental construction of an altruistic “social contract.” Having inferred this normative state of affairs, children may assure its day-to-day instantiation through their own benevolent behavior.

Authors

• RODOLFO CORTES BARRAGAN, Rodolfo Cortes Barragan
  Presenting Author

• Carol S. Dweck, Stanford University
  Non-Presenting Author