Related Experiment Videos
Infants' evaluation of prosocial and antisocial agents: A meta-analysis
Francesco Margoni1, Luca Surian1
1Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences.
Insights
Infants consistently prefer prosocial agents over antisocial ones, with about two-thirds choosing the helper. This early prosocial preference remains stable across different ages and study methods.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Cognition
Background:
- Infants demonstrate a preference for prosocial agents over antisocial ones.
- This preference is evident in studies involving helping, comfort, and fairness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To meta-analyze existing research on infant preferences for prosocial versus antisocial agents.
- To determine the overall effect size and influencing factors of this preference.
Main Methods:
- Meta-analysis of published and unpublished studies involving infants aged 4-32 months.
- Inclusion of studies using selective reaching or helping tasks, and cartoon or real-event stimuli.
Main Results:
- Approximately two-thirds of infants preferred prosocial agents.
- Preference was not significantly influenced by infant age, dependent variable type, or stimulus modality.
- Familiarization events involving giving/taking actions yielded larger effect sizes than helping/hindering actions.
Conclusions:
- Infants exhibit a robust preference for prosocial behavior from an early age.
- Publication bias and potential file-drawer problems may inflate reported effect sizes.
Abstract:
Over the past decade, numerous studies have reported that infants prefer prosocial agents (those who provide help, comfort, or fairness in distributive actions) to antisocial agents (those who harm others or distribute goods unfairly). We meta-analyzed the results of published and unpublished studies on infants aged 4-32 months and estimated that approximately two infants out of three, when given a choice between a prosocial and an antisocial agent, choose the former. This preference was not significantly affected by age or other factors, such as the type of dependent variable (selective reaching or helping) or the modality of stimulus presentation (cartoons or real events). Effect size was affected by the type of familiarization events: giving/taking actions increased its magnitude compared with helping/hindering actions. There was evidence of a publication bias, suggesting that the effect size in published studies is likely to be inflated. Also, the distribution of children who chose the prosocial agent in experiments with N = 16 suggested a file-drawer problem. (PsycINFO Database Record