Concern for existing prosocial reputation increases prosociality in 5-year-olds
CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)
Abstract：This study examined whether 5-year-old children would strategically engage in prosocial behaviors to maintain their existing prosocial reputation. Experiment 1 found that when children were told that their peers had nominated them as kids who like to help (assigned a helping reputation), they exhibited helping behaviors more quickly compared to when they were assigned a sharing reputation or no reputation at all. Experiment 2 found that when children were told that their peers had nominated them as kids who like to share (assigned a sharing reputation), they shared more compared to when they were assigned a helping reputation or no reputation at all. These results indicate that 5-year-old children engage in corresponding prosocial behaviors to maintain their specific prosocial reputation, with implications for our understanding of the strategic motive underlying young children’s prosocial behavior.
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