Poster #127 - Do Different Choice Contexts Shape Children’s Expectations for Selective Comforting Among Friends?

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Friendship generates selectivity in many social behaviors. Even toddlers show greater concern when those with whom they are most closely affiliated become distressed (Howes & Farver, 1987). But when do children expect social affiliation to shape selective prosocial responsiveness among third parties? Although prior research indicates that preschool-age children expect partiality in resource sharing among friends (Olson & Spelke, 2008; Liberman & Shaw, 2017), their expectations for other prosocial behaviors—such as comforting—are unclear.

Experiment 1 examined whether 4- to 6-year-old children (N = 71 of planned 72) use information about an injured character’s social affiliations to determine who would be most likely help them. In each of six trials, children met a protagonist. The protagonist interacted with a second character in a familiar, friendly way, but chose not to interact with a third character (who acted positively on their own). Children next viewed all three characters in a park, and the protagonist became injured (e.g. fell from a tree, tripped on a rock, etc.). Children selected which of the two other characters would provide assistance.

Overall, children indicated that the affiliated character would help the protagonist (p < .005). However, children’s age was associated with these choices, and only 6-year-olds selected the affiliated character at rates greater than chance. This result indicates that, by at least 6 years, children believe that social affiliation—perhaps friendship—structures relative prosocial responsiveness among individuals.

Younger children’s failure to use social affiliation information in Experiment 1 indicates that they thought both characters would help the protagonist. They may believe that people will generally help injured others, despite having no personal connection to them. However, this belief is compatible with a more specific expectation that, when multiple others are injured, an individual’s social affiliation will guide their choices about whom to help first.

Experiment 2 thus examines whether 4- to 6-year-old children (N = 44 of planned 72) use information about a protagonist’s affiliations to determine who she should comfort, when faced with multiple individuals in need. As in Experiment 1, children met protagonists and learned about their relationships with two other characters. On each test trial, however, these two additional characters became injured. Children selected which injured character the protagonist would assist. Analyses based on the complete data will be presented, assessing developments in children’s reasoning about an individual’s prosocial choices when helping everybody is not possible.

Authors

• Amanda Mae Woodward, University of Maryland, College Park
  Presenting Author

• Tara Kristen McCurry, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jonathan S Beier, University of Maryland at College Park
  Non-Presenting Author