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When revealed after the fact, selfish intentions undermine prosocial actions in 5-year-olds

Kayley Dotson1, Michael Tomasello2,3

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America.

Plos One
|March 18, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Children are less likely to share with others if their prosocial behavior is later revealed to be motivated by selfish intentions. This impacts children's willingness to reciprocate helpful actions.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Social Cognition
  • Moral Reasoning

Background:

  • Children naturally prefer prosocial individuals and helpful intentions.
  • Understanding how children evaluate actions when intentions are initially hidden is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate children's reasoning about prosocial actions when a selfish intention is revealed post-benefit.
  • To examine the impact of revealed selfish intentions on children's reciprocity.

Main Methods:

  • 48 five-year-old children participated in a game with a puppet.
  • The puppet initially acted prosocially, then revealed either a selfish or prosocial intention.
  • Children's willingness to reciprocate was measured by their sharing behavior.

Main Results:

  • Children shared less with the puppet when its intention was revealed as selfish compared to prosocial.
  • No significant differences were found in children's explicit social evaluations of the puppet across conditions.
  • A hidden selfish intention, revealed after a prosocial act, reduced children's reciprocal sharing.

Conclusions:

  • Children's reciprocity is negatively affected by the delayed revelation of an agent's selfish intentions.
  • Initial prosocial behavior does not guarantee future reciprocity if underlying selfish motives are uncovered.
  • This highlights the importance of intention transparency in early social development and cooperation.

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