Happy Little Benefactor: Prosocial Behaviors Promote Happiness in Young Children From Two Cultures

Abstract

Evidence that young children display more happiness when sharing than receiving treats supports that humans, by nature, are prosocial. However, whether this "warm glow" is also found for other prosocial behaviors (instrumental helping and empathic helping) and/or in different cultures is still unclear. Dutch (studies 1 and 2) and Chinese (study 3) young children participated in a sharing task, followed by instrumental helping and empathic helping tasks in which they were praised (thanked) if they helped. Consistent results were found across three studies, showing that (1) participants displayed more happiness after giving than receiving treats; (2) toddlers displayed more happiness after instrumental helping than initially interacting with the experimenter; and (3) toddlers' happiness remained the same after positive social feedback (i.e., being thanked). Taken together, these results indicate that independent of culture, both sharing and instrumental helping are emotionally rewarding, supporting an evolutionary origin of these behaviors.

Helping and Happiness: A Review and Guide for Public Policy

“…Video recordings of the toddlers’ interactions were later coded for facial expressions of happiness. Analyses revealed that children smiled more when giving an edible treat to a puppet than when receiving edible treats themselves, suggesting that the emotional rewards of giving are detectable early in childhood (Aknin, Hamlin, & Dunn, 2012; see also Aknin, Broesch, Van de Vondervoort, & Hamlin, 2015; Song Broekhuizen, & Dubas, 2020).…”

Are Real-World Prosociality Programs Associated with Greater Psychological Well-Being in Primary School-Aged Children?

“…The toddlers' behaviour was video recorded throughout, and facial expressions were later coded for happiness by a team of trained coders. Analyses revealed that toddlers smiled more when giving treats away to the puppet than when receiving treats themselves, both when kids gave their own treat or an identical treat provided by the experimenter, suggesting that toddlers find giving emotionally rewarding ; see also Song et al, 2020). Other research converges with the notion that young children find prosocial action rewarding.…”

How Being Observed Influences Preschoolers’ Emotions Following (Less) Deserving Help

“…In most studies investigating the link between children's positive emotions and their prosocial behavior, children were given an opportunity to share with or help a social partner and their emotion was measured before or thereafter. These studies have found that 2-to 5-year-old children express positive emotions, that is a higher level of happiness, as assessed by raters, while sharing a reward with a puppet (Aknin et al, 2012(Aknin et al, , 2015Song et al, 2020). This response has been found to emerge in children from two Western cultures (the United States and the Netherlands; Aknin et al, 2012;Song et al, 2020), and in children from a rural smallscale society (Aknin et al, 2015).…”

“…Emotions play a pivotal role in motivating and maintaining children's prosociality (Eisenberg et al, 2016;Malti & Dys, 2018). For instance, sympathy for those who have been harmed increases children's comforting (Eisenberg & Miller, 1987;Malti et al, 2009;Vaish et al, 2009;Zahn-Waxler et al, 1992) and children show positive emotions when helping and giving to others (Aknin et al, 2012(Aknin et al, , 2015(Aknin et al, , 2018Hepach et al, 2017;Lennon & Eisenberg, 1987;Song et al, 2020;Wu et al, 2017). These positive emotions appear to provide a proximate incentive for children to forego their immediate self-interest, and instead invest in their cooperative partners (Aknin et al, 2012), as well as maintain their relationships with peers, e.g., by signaling interest in cooperative interactions (Marcus, 1986).…”

“…These studies have found that 2-to 5-year-old children express positive emotions, that is a higher level of happiness, as assessed by raters, while sharing a reward with a puppet (Aknin et al, 2012(Aknin et al, , 2015Song et al, 2020). This response has been found to emerge in children from two Western cultures (the United States and the Netherlands; Aknin et al, 2012;Song et al, 2020), and in children from a rural smallscale society (Aknin et al, 2015). In a different paradigm, toddlers from Germany expressed an elevated body posture after helping a needy adult (Hepach et al, 2017).…”