Thinking of me: Self-focus reduces sharing and helping in seven- to eight-year-olds

PLoS One. 2018 Jan 10;13(1):e0189752. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189752. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

By 7-to 8-years of age, most children readily adhere to prosocial norms aimed at benefiting others through giving up time and effort (helping) or resources (sharing). Two studies explored whether sharing and helping by 7-to 8-year olds (N = 180) could be influenced by priming children's attention on themselves or their friends through a semi-structured interview. Results revealed that self-priming led to reductions in both sharing and helping compared to friendship-priming or a control condition. These findings are considered as indicative of the fragile state of prosocial behaviours at this age that can be easily shifted towards more selfish biases by simple priming.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Female
  • Helping Behavior*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Social Behavior*

Grants and funding

BH was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, grant number: ES/K010131/1. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.