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Experience facilitates the emergence of sharing behavior among 7.5-month-old infants

Jing Xu1, Lucie Saether1, Jessica A Sommerville1

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Washington.

Developmental Psychology
|September 23, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Reciprocal object exchanges encourage sharing behavior in infants. Parental empathy enhances this effect, highlighting its importance in early prosocial development.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Psychology

Background:

  • Prosociality is crucial for social functioning.
  • Understanding the origins of prosocial development is critical.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Investigate if reciprocal object exchanges drive the development of sharing behavior in infants.
  • Examine the role of parental empathy in this process.

Main Methods:

  • Seven-month-old infants participated in two lab visits.
  • An intervention involved either object release into a bucket or reciprocal object sharing with parents.
  • Sharing behavior and object release abilities were assessed.

Main Results:

  • Infants in the sharing condition exhibited significantly more sharing than those in the bucket condition.
  • Sharing behavior increased significantly in the sharing condition across visits.
  • Parental empathy moderated the intervention's effect, but practice frequency did not.

Conclusions:

  • Reciprocal turn-taking in object-exchange interactions facilitates early sharing behavior.
  • Parental empathy mediates the emergence of sharing behavior.
  • This research sheds light on the early development of prosociality.

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