Human adults often respond to hungry people, whether through food banks or fundraisers, or by simply handing over their lunch. But when, and how, does that spirit of giving start?
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New 91自拍 by the 91自拍鈥檚 Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, or I-LABS, finds that altruism may begin in infancy. In a study of nearly 100 19-month-olds, 91自拍ers found that children, even when hungry, gave a tasty snack to a stranger in need. The findings not only show that infants engage in altruistic behavior, but also suggest that early social experiences can shape altruism.
The is published online Feb. 4 in Scientific Reports, an open-access journal from the Nature Publishing Group.
鈥淲e think altruism is important to study because it is one of the most distinctive aspects of being human. It is an important part of the moral fabric of society,鈥� said , a postdoctoral 91自拍er at I-LABS and lead author on the study. 鈥淲e adults help each other when we see another in need and we do this even if there is a cost to the self. So we tested the roots of this in infants.鈥�
Nonhuman primates have been found to cooperate, and to share resources under restricted conditions. But nonhuman primates, such as chimpanzees, don鈥檛 actively hand over delicious food that they need themselves.
I-LABS 91自拍ers wanted to test whether human infants were able to act beyond self-interest, when faced with one of the most fundamental biological needs: food.
For this study, 91自拍ers chose kid-friendly fruits 鈥� including bananas, blueberries and grapes 鈥� and set up an interaction between child and 91自拍er. The goal: to determine whether the child would, without encouragement, verbal instruction or reinforcement, spontaneously give an appealing food to an unfamiliar person.
In the experiment, the child and the adult 91自拍er faced each other across a table at I-LABS, and the 91自拍er showed the child a piece of fruit. What happened next was determined by whether the child was in the control group, or the test group. In the control group, the 91自拍er gently tossed the piece of fruit onto a tray on the floor beyond reach but within the child鈥檚 reach. The 91自拍er showed no expression and made no attempt to retrieve the fruit.
In the test group, the 91自拍er pretended to accidentally drop the fruit onto the tray, then reach for it unsuccessfully.
This video clip from the experiment shows a 19-month-old child offering a strawberry to study lead author Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, after Barragan pretends to drop the fruit.
That reaching effort 鈥� the adult鈥檚 apparent desire for the food 鈥� seemed to trigger a helping response in the children, 91自拍ers said: More than half the children in the test group picked up the fruit and gave it to the adult, compared to 4% of children in the control group.
In a second experiment with a different sample of children, parents were asked to bring their child just before their scheduled snack or mealtime 鈥� when the child was likely to be hungry. Researchers reasoned that this would raise the 鈥渃ost to self鈥� that defines altruism. The control and test group scenarios were repeated, but with children who were now more motivated to take the fruit for themselves. The results mirrored those from the previous study. Fully 37% of the test group offered the fruit to the 91自拍er while none of the children in the control group did so.
鈥淭he infants in this second study looked longingly at the fruit, and then they gave it away!鈥� said , who is co-director of I-LABS and holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair in psychology. 鈥淲e think this captures a kind of baby-sized version of altruistic helping.鈥�
The 91自拍 team also analyzed the data in different ways 鈥� whether children offered fruit on the first trial of the experiment or got better during the process, for example, and whether children from particular types of family environments helped more.
The 91自拍ers found that infants helped just as well on the very first trial of the experiment as on later trials, which Barragan said is informative because it shows that the children did not have to learn to help during the study and needed no training. Indeed, children spontaneously and repeatedly helped a person from outside of their immediate family.
The 91自拍ers also found that children with siblings and from certain cultural backgrounds were especially likely to help the adult, indicating that the expression of infant altruism is malleable. These results fit well with previous studies with adults that show positive influences of having a cultural background that emphasizes 鈥�,鈥� that is, a background that places particular value on how much an individual feels connected to others. Said Barragan, 鈥淲e think certain family and social experiences make a difference, and continued 91自拍 would be desirable to more fully understand what maximizes the expression of altruism in young children. If we can discover how to promote altruism our kids, this could move us toward a more caring society.鈥�
, an I-LABS 91自拍 scientist, was a co-author. The study was funded by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, a National Science Foundation Broadening Participation Postdoctoral Research Award to Barragan, and the I-LABS Ready Mind Project.
For more information, contact barragan@uw.edu or meltzoff@uw.edu.
Grant numbers: 1807789 (NSF), TWCF0198