How development and culture shape intuitions about prosocial obligations.

Abstract

Do children, like most adults, believe that only kin and close others are obligated to help one another? In two studies (total N = 1140), we examined whether children (~5-to ~10-yos) and adults across five different societies consider social relationship when ascribing prosocial obligations. Contrary to the view that such discriminations are a natural default in human reasoning, younger children in the United States (Studies 1 and 2) and across cultures (Study 2) generally judged everyone-parents, friends, and strangers-as obligated to help someone-inneed. Older children and adults, on the other hand, tended to exhibit more discriminant judgments. They considered parents more obligated to help than friends followed by strangers-though this effect was stronger in some cultures than others. Our findings suggest that children's initial sense of prosocial obligation in social-relational contexts starts out broad and generally becomes more selective over the course of development.

Why do children and adults think other people punish?

“…Additionally, the findings indicate that children are less prone than adults to modulate which motives they endorse as a function of social context. This result coheres with other research indicating that children’s social judgments are less influenced by social context than adults’ (e.g., Geraci et al, 2021; Marshall et al, 2022).…”

“…Indeed, as discussed in the Introduction, the present study is not the first to find that children’s judgments are less sensitive to social context at a younger age. For example, children at younger ages appear less inclined to take social relational factors into account when making moral judgments about obligations to help (Dahl et al, 2020; Marshall et al, 2019; Marshall, Mermin-Bunnell, et al, 2020; Marshall, Wynn, et al, 2020; Marshall et al, 2022; Miller et al, 1990) and when deciding how to allocate rewards and punishments between helpers and nonhelpers (Geraci et al, 2021). More generally, research indicates that younger children are more likely to rely on a single principle when making social and moral judgments (Berndt & Berndt, 1975; Walden, 1982).…”

“…For example, Fiske and Rai (2014) theorize that people should expect institutional entities to adhere to impartial, consequentialist principles when punishing, but should expect those who do not occupy such roles, such as schoolmates, colleagues, and peers, to punish for more deontological reasons. In terms of development, older children may be more sensitive to social context compared to younger children, who are less inclined to consider social context when making moral judgments in some contexts, such as determining prosocial obligation (Dahl et al, 2020; Geraci et al, 2021; Marshall, Mermin-Bunnell, et al, 2020; Marshall, Wynn, et al, 2020; Marshall et al, 2022; Miller et al, 1990).…”

Is helping always morally good? Study with toddlers and preschool children.

“…Our results seem to complement the approach that highlights helping as an obligation toward others (Lanzetta & Wilke, 1971; Marshall et al, 2022). Younger children assessed helping the recipient as always good, regardless of the aim to which this help led.…”

“…Second, in the process of socialization, moral judgments are nuanced and differentiated due to information provided by caregivers (Killen & Smetana, 1999;Nucci et al, 2017). Finally, morality as an obligation concept, as well as studies on children observing others being helped, predicts that for younger children, the default behavior toward others will be to help others; thus that they will assess the attitude of others always positively (Hepach et al, 2012(Hepach et al, , 2023Marshall et al, 2022).…”