Young children help others in a range of situations, relatively indiscriminate of the characteristics of those they help. Recent results have suggested that young children's helping behavior extends even to humanoid robots. However, it has been unclear how characteristics of robots would influence children's helping behavior. Considering previous findings suggesting that certain robot features influence adults' perception of and their behavior toward robots, the question arises of whether young children's behavior and perception would follow the same principles. The current study investigated whether two key characteristics of a humanoid robot (animate autonomy and friendly expressiveness) would affect children's instrumental helping behavior and their perception of the robot as an animate being. Eighty-two 3-year-old children participated in one of four experimental conditions manipulating a robot's ostensible animate autonomy (high/low) and friendly expressiveness (friendly/neutral). Helping was assessed in an out-of-reach task and animacy ratings were assessed in a post-test interview. Results suggested that both children's helping behavior, as well as their perception of the robot as animate, were unaffected by the robot's characteristics. The findings indicate that young children's helping behavior extends largely indiscriminately across two important characteristics. These results increase our understanding of the development of children's altruistic behavior and animate-inanimate distinctions. Our findings also raise important ethical questions for the field of child-robot interaction.
While the development of self-recognition in a mirror by toddlers is well documented, less is known about how the presence of a mirror affects young children's behaviour. Here, we explored how the presence of a mirror affected 2.5-to 3.5-year-olds' behaviour in a gift-delay task. Behaviour was assessed for a five-minute test period during which children sat in front of a gift bag that was not to be touched until an experimenter returned. Transgressive behaviour by adults is reduced in the presence of a mirror, so we hypothesized that children faced with a mirror would be less likely to touch the gift than children tested without a mirror. We found that the mirror reduced transgressions in children starting from around 3 years of age. We conclude that the presence of a mirror facilitated self-monitoring in 3-year-old children, such that deviations from a behavioural standard are noticed and corrected immediately.
Statement of contributionWhat is already known on the subject?Children's self-recognition in a mirror has been well documented. Adults' behaviour can be affected by the presence of a mirror.There is a lack of research investigating how the presence of a mirror affects young children's behaviour.
What does this study add?We show that the presence of a mirror decreases young children's likelihood to transgress in a giftdelay task. This effect appears to emerge at around three years of age. These findings raise interesting questions regarding the development of self-awareness and how it relates to other mechanisms.
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