Further Evidence for Infants' Preference for Prosocial Over Antisocial Behaviors

Abstract

This study extends the findings that young infants prefer prosocial to antisocial others (Hamlin & Wynn, Cognitive Development 2011, 26, 30; Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, Nature 2007, 450, 557) to older infants (12–24 and 24–36 months) with a novel display. We presented infants with short cartoons in which a character (the “Protoganist”) engaged in a ball play with two others, one acting prosocially (the “Giver”), and the other antisocially (the “Keeper”). Afterward, infants were presented with the Giver and the Keeper characters and encouraged to reach for the one of their choices. We found that infants exhibited robust choice for the Giver. In addition, infants' preference for the Giver persisted despite changes in facial features (dark skin, scrambled face). These findings provide further evidence for infant's preference for prosociality.

Infants’ Visual Preferences for Prosocial Behavior and Other-Race Characters at 6 Months: An Eye-Tracking Study

“…First, regarding aspects of behavior (prosociality), our findings showed that infants exhibited a visual preference for the game-player over the game-breaker when the two interacted with a central partner (prosocial control condition). This result confirmed our prediction and supports the recurrent observation that young infants display a preference for agents that act prosocially toward others in many different contexts (e.g., Hamlin et al, 2007;Scola et al, 2015).…”

“…From this perspective, and in the same vein as the abovementioned studies, we designed a short study featuring animated cartoons (a well-controlled medium for assessing infants' prosocial preferences; see Gredebäck et al, 2015;Scola et al, 2015) to test the visual preferences of 6-monthold Caucasian infants for prosocial behavior and other-race characters. Compared with previous research in this area (Burns & Sommerville, 2014;Scola et al, 2015), we chose to observe far younger infants (6 months), so as to assess whether and how behavior and race are weighted in social evaluation at an early age.…”

“…Indeed, adults' social judgments and preferences are affected by facial appearance (Olson & Marshuetz, 2005), and we can easily assume the same phenomenon could be observed in infants. The only two studies that have explored the influence of appearance have gone through the influence of race (Burns & Sommerville, 2014;Scola et al, 2015). The authors made the hypothesis that the preference for prosocial agents may vary according to the appearance of the agents, namely, whether their race is 784993S GOXXX10.1177/2158244018784993SAGE OpenHolvoet et al…”

Infants’ and Young Children’s Preferences for Prosocial over Antisocial Others

“…By 3 months of age, infants selectively look toward puppets who helped rather than hindered the protagonist's attempts to climb a hill or retrieve a ball Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, 2010]. Older infants, who can intentionally reach toward objects, have been shown to selectively reach toward puppets that help rather than hinder in the hill, ball, and box scenarios described above [Hamlin, 2013;2015;Hamlin et al, 2007; see also Scola et al, 2015; but see Salvadori et al, 2015, for negative evidence and Cowell & Decety, 2015, for negative evidence with a modified procedure; see Margoni & Surian, 2018, for a meta-analysis]. Broadly consistent with the emotion-based account of (particularly early) moral judgment described above, both infants and toddlers have recently been shown to display more positive emotional reactions after viewing prosocial giving versus antisocial taking [Steckler et al, 2018; we will return to this issue later in the paper].…”

“…In alternation, the protagonist's goal is facilitated by a helper and thwarted by a hinderer; these puppets bump the protagonist up/down the hill, return/ steal the ball, or open/close the box. After watching the helping and hindering scenarios several times, infants are presented with the helper and hinderer by an experimenter who is unaware of the puppet's identity; the experimenter notes which puppet infants look longer toward or touch first Hamlin et al, 2007; see also Buon et al, 2014;Scola, Holvoet, Arciszewski, & Picard, 2015]. Greater looking toward or selective touching of one puppet over the other is taken as reflecting a (relatively) more positive evaluation of the preferred puppet.…”