prosocial behaviour + altruism

what does Tomasello (2019) believe we must focus on to explain + understand prosociality in humans

we must focus on understanding how great ape ontogeny in general has been transformed into human ontogeny, as the most frequent source of new traits is changes in manner in which pre-existing (+ shared) genes are expressed

what is prosocial behaviour

voluntary behaviour intended to benefit another, e.g. comforting, helping, sharing etc.

what is altruism

prosocial behaviour that is performed for unselfish motives → has no benefit to oneself, even in the long run

how does prosocial behaviour change with age (Eisenberg + Fabes, 1998)

altruism in infancy is not uncommon, but children generally engage in more prosocial behaviours with age

what are 3 types of prosocial behaviour

• comforting → addressing negative emotional state

• helping → addressing instrumental need (trying to achieve a practical outcome)

• sharing → addressing material need/desire

when does comforting behaviour tend to increase (Zahn-Waxler et al., 1992)

the rate at which children comfort others who are in pain/distress increases over the second year of life

• this contrasts to reacting with distress themselves (empathy)

how did Zahn-Waxler et al. (1992b) study heritability of comforting behaviour + what were the results

observed 94 MZ and 90 DZ twin pairs during 2nd year of life + recorded their reactions to adults pretending to be distressed

• found heritability estimates indicated that genetic factors have a modest role in explaining toddlers’ prosocial actions + concern → suggests that genes might influence neurohormonal systems, influencing affective responses to others’ distress

how does Holmgren et al. (1998) explain individual differences in comforting behaviour

those who are not overwhelmed by the emotions they experience are more likely to feel sympathy, and those who are not overly inhibited are more likely to act on their sympathetic feelings

• children who struggle to process or act on emotions seemingly show no concern/comforting

how do chimpanzees display similar + different comforting behaviours to humans

chimpanzees also comfort + reassure others as humans do, but later in development than humans

• part of understanding human prosociality may therefore be when certain abilities emerge rather than solely ‘if’

overall, by what age do children show reasoned responsiveness to distress

3 years old

what did Liszkowski et al. (2008) find regarding when + how infants help others, and what does this suggest about helping

by 12 months, infants help others by pointing informatively, e.g. when an adult didn’t see where a desired object went (vs when they did)

• shows even without physical assistance, communication helps others achieve an instrumental goal

at what age do infants demonstrate active assistance behaviour (Warneken + Tomasello, 2006)

18 months → start to help others in simple tasks when adults feign a need for help

does chimpanzee helping behaviour differ from humans’

chimpanzees help in similar situations where it is easy for them to infer what the other’s goal is, though there is some debate over whether they do display prosocial helping

how did Pettygrove et al. (2013) test methods of promoting helping behaviour at 2 different ages

assessed whether + how caregivers could promote helping behaviour in 18 month + 30 month-olds by:

• 1st phase → helped their mother clean up + maternal helping promotion behaviours were recorded

• 2nd phase (DV) → children had the chance to help another adult

what methods did Pettygrove et al. (2013) find were most effective at 18 + 30 months

certain styles of caregiver behaviour predicted infants’ likelihood of helping another adult, depending on age:

• 18 months → effective styles included:

  • directives → commands or requests e.g. ‘can you get that toy’

  • scaffolding → providing support e.g. emotional regulation, making child’s actions relevant in the activity

• 30 months → effective styles include:

  • scaffolding

  • negotiation → finding a compromise e.g. ‘if you tidy up you can play with this new toy’

what 3 approaches didn’t help at either age (Pettygrove et al., 2013)

• reasoning → explaining the need e.g. ‘we need to tidy up to have space to play a new game’; kids at 30 months don’t have these reasoning skills

• praise → positive commends e.g. ‘great tidying’; may be too open-ended/generic

• character attribution → comments on the child’s characteristics e.g. ‘you’re so good at helping’; may promote self-esteem, but not helping

what are 3 forms of sharing

• resource sharing

• affiliative sharing → sharing social resources

• fairness + reciprocity as values → there is cultural variation in these tendencies

at what age do infants share attention + interest (affiliative sharing)

around 6 months → joint attention

at what age do infants begin to actively give objects

around 9-10 months → sets the stage for notions of ‘mine’ + ‘yours’

what is the nature of sharing behaviour at 18 months (Brownell et al., 2013)

at this age, infants begin to share resources e.g. food + toys → this requires heavy scaffolding from adults initially + tends to be:

• not very common

• rarely spontaneous

• not very generous (will only share a small amount with others)

how does resource sharing behaviour change between 18 and 24 months + what is this change driven by

by 24 months infants start to share more quickly/often, more generously and with less prompting

• increased sharing = prompted by increased social understanding, e.g. infants starting to gain a concept of what is ‘mine’ + ‘yours’

what behaviour regarding fairness + reciprocity develops around age 3

children begin to become more discerning about who should benefit from their prosocial behaviour

which 3 groups of people did Olson + Spelke (2008) find children tend to prefer sharing resources with

• family + friends

• people who have shared with them (reciprocity)

• people who have shared with others (indirect reciprocity → fairness)

what other kind of reciprocity do children display at age 3 + how was this demonstrated (Robbins + Rochat, 2011)

strong reciprocity → evidenced by children sacrificing resources to punish + reward others for their behaviour

how did Blake et al. (2015) examine attitudes to fairness + in what 2 conditions

examined attitudes to fairness from 4-15 years in diverse societies. both children have a bowl + platform with levers → pulling the green lever means both children get sweets, whether red lever means none do. inequity is either:

• advantageous → you have more sweets

• disadvantageous → the other has more sweets

how does disadvantageous aversion reciprocity aversion change as children age

kids are more likely to pull the red lever (meaning they don’t get fewer sweets) as they age → emerged in all populations by middle childhood

how does advantageous reciprocity aversion change as children age

found large cultural differences in advantageous reciprocity → generally increases a small amount with age, but levels are generally lower than disadvantageous

• emerged in only 3 populations + later on in development

how are sharing behaviours different + similar in great apes

there is some sharing behaviours in other great apes, but is more limited to specific situations than in humans + limited to females

• female chimpanzees have been known to share food

• sharing is more common in bonobos → voluntarily hand food (but not toys/tools) to others

what is altruism (Dahl + Paulus, 2018)

acts motivated by the welfare of others, as prosocial behaviour can be for selfish purposes

what evidence did Hepach et al. (2013) find of altruism

found toddlers help each other whether or not there is an adult there to watch them, and whether or not the person they are helping is familiar

at what age did Warneken (2013) find evidence of altruism + how

found 2 year-olds displayed proactive prosociality by remedying unnoticed accidents e.g. picking up a dropped object, even when engaged in a task of their own (does not benefit them)

what are 3 motivational sources of prosociality

• empathic concern → a sincere concern for others’ wellbeing

• gratitude + guilt → gratitude sustains prosocial interactions + reinforces reciprocity, while guilt motivates repair of ruptured social relations

• obligation → commitments create a sense of social obligation + norms create expectation of altruistic behaviour

how did Warneken + Tomasello (2008) test the impact of material reward on altruism in 20 month-olds

children had the chance to help an adult in exchange for:

• being given a material reward

• verbal reward → praise

• no reward → responded neutrally

DV → measured the likelihood of helping the adult again after first phase

what were Warneken + Tomasello (2008)’s findings + what does this suggest

• children were significantly less likely to help again in the reward condition, and still slightly less likely in the praise condition → extrinsic motivator less effective to altruistic action

• suggests importance of intrinsic motivation to altruistic action → no reward = more likely to help

what does Warneken + Tomasello (2009) think as to whether altruism is an innate tendency

yes → infants display helping from early in development + extrinsic motivation inhibits helping behaviour

• chimpanzees helping others when it is easy to infer their goal suggests helping is an evolutionary function

what does Dahl + Paulus (2018) think as to whether altruism is an innate tendency

not exactly → early helping can be explained by a motivation for social interaction rather than altruism