Prosocial Reward Learning in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescence is a period of increased sensitivity to social contexts. To evaluate how social context sensitivity changes over development—and influences reward learning—we investigated how children and adolescents perceive and integrate rewards for oneself and others during a dynamic risky decision-making task. Children and adolescents (N = 75, 8–16 years) performed the Social Gambling Task (SGT, Kwak et al., 2014) and completed a set of questionnaires measuring other-regarding behavior. In the SGT, participants choose amongst four card decks that have different payout structures for oneself and for a charity. We examined patterns of choices, overall decision strategies, and how reward outcomes led to trial-by-trial adjustments in behavior, as estimated using a reinforcement-learning model. Performance of children and adolescents was compared to data from a previously collected sample of adults (N = 102) performing the identical task. We found that that children/adolescents were not only more sensitive to rewards directed to the charity than self but also showed greater prosocial tendencies on independent measures of other-regarding behavior. Children and adolescents also showed less use of a strategy that prioritizes rewards for self at the expense of rewards for others. These results support the conclusion that, compared to adults, children and adolescents show greater sensitivity to outcomes for others when making decisions and learning about potential rewards.

Giving to Friends, Classmates, and Strangers in Adolescence

“…Notably, our results indicate that perspective taking is especially important for giving to strangers as compared to classmates and friends, suggesting it may be key to overcoming in-group bias. Based on prior research showing associations between social rewards and giving (Kwak & Huettel, 2016;Van Hoorn et al, 2016) , we also examined how sensitivity to two domains of social rewards (prosocial interactions and sociability) were related to differences in giving to a friend, classmate, or stranger. We expected that sensitivity to the reward of prosocial interactions would be associated with higher donations, especially for friends, but we found this association regardless of target and only in male participants.…”

“…Even though it is possible to discern general developmental patterns in giving toward different targets, prior studies have demonstrated pronounced individual differences in giving behavior in relation to perspective taking and sensitivity to social rewards (Kwak & Huettel, ; Padilla‐Walker, Carlo, & Memmott‐Elison, ; Van Hoorn, Dijk, Meuwese, Rieffe, & Crone, ; Will & Güroğlu, ). Higher levels of perspective taking are associated with an increase in perceived similarity of unknown others (Galinsky & Moskowitz, ) and greater levels of giving during adolescence (Güroğlu et al., ; Will & Güroğlu, ).…”

“…A second process associated with giving is sensitivity to social rewards. A recent study showed that adolescents who displayed higher sensitivity to social rewards donated more to charity (Kwak & Huettel, ). In this study, we investigated associations between giving and two domains of social rewards, namely prosocial interactions (i.e., feeling rewarded by having kind, reciprocal relationships) and sociability (i.e., feeling rewarded by engaging in group interactions; Foulkes et al., ).…”

“…Prosocial behavior is a complex, multi-faceted construct, referring to various forms of positive other-oriented behavior (e.g., giving, helping, cooperating) directed at interaction partners or targets, such as strangers, friends, and family (Padilla-Walker & Carlo, 2014). Recently, it has been suggested that adolescence is a crucial turning point in the development of prosocial behavior during which young people develop social-affective goals and navigate increasingly complex social worlds (Crone & Dahl, 2012;Foulkes, Neumann, Roberts, McCrory, & Viding, 2017;Kwak & Huettel, 2016). However, it remains poorly understood which processes in adolescence predict prosocial behaviors (Crone & Dahl, 2012) and how this depends on the social context and characteristics of the expresser (G€ uro glu, van den Bos, & Crone, 2014;Padilla-Walker & Carlo, 2014).…”

Geben macht glücklicher und ist gesünder als Nehmen

“…Diese Studie passt übrigens zu weiteren Daten aus der Entwicklungspsychologie an 8-bis 16-Jährigen, die gezeigt haben, dass diese ein stärkeres helfendes Verhalten aufweisen als Erwachsene (13). Sie lernen zudem prosoziales Verhalten vergleichsweise rasch am Modell (14).…”