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Examining the Diversity of Prosocial Behavior: Helping, Sharing, and Comforting in Infancy

Kristen Dunfield1, Valerie A Kuhlmeier1, Laura O'Connell1

  • 1Department of Psychology Queen's University.

Infancy : the Official Journal of the International Society on Infant Studies
|July 23, 2020
PubMed

Insights

Young infants demonstrate helping and sharing behaviors when an adult needs assistance. This suggests early prosocial tendencies in infants, though these actions were not correlated across different tasks.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Infant Behavior

Background:

  • Prosocial behaviors are crucial for human social functioning.
  • Understanding the origins of prosociality in early development is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the prosocial behaviors of helping, sharing, and comforting in 18- and 24-month-old infants.
  • To determine if infants exhibit more other-oriented actions when aid is needed.

Main Methods:

  • Infants aged 18 and 24 months participated in experimental and control conditions.
  • Three types of prosocial behaviors were assessed: helping, sharing, and comforting.

Main Results:

  • Infants showed significantly more helping and sharing behaviors in experimental conditions (adult needing aid) versus control conditions.
  • Helping and sharing behaviors occurred with similar frequency but were not correlated.
  • Comforting behaviors were not significantly different between conditions.

Conclusions:

  • Infants exhibit context-dependent prosocial behaviors, particularly helping and sharing.
  • The findings suggest a potential prosocial disposition emerging in infancy.
  • The lack of correlation between tasks indicates task-specific rather than a generalized prosocial response at this age.

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