The Cultural Contexts of Children’s Prosocial Behaviors

Guzman, Maria Rosario de; Anh, Kieu; Kok, Car Mun

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199964772.003.0011

Cited by 24 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…The observed difference is predictable from the cultural orientation of individualism‐collectivism, yet the specific nature of cultural processes requires further investigation. Our findings contribute to ongoing discussions of the processes that underlie both uniformity and diversity in prosocial behavior across societies and social cultural contexts (de Guzman, Do, & Kok, ; Feygina & Henry, ; House et al, ; House, ; Schäfer, Haun, & Tomasello, ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

‘She is looking at me! Shall I share?’ How Chinese and American preschoolers respond to eye gaze during sharing

Chen

Gros‐Louis

et al. 2018

Social Development

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Previous research shows that the recipient's verbal communication about desires increases young children's sharing behavior. The current study examined how an adult partner's non-verbal communication through eye gaze influenced sharing behavior in children from different cultures. We presented one hundred forty-six 3-to 5-year-old American and Chinese children with a Dictator Game, in which they were asked to distribute resources between themselves and an experimenter. Children were randomly assigned to three conditions, in which the experimenter alternated her gaze between the child and the items that she wanted, or looked randomly around the room, or left when the child made decisions about sharing but claimed to come back later.Results showed that Chinese children shared more than American children did in the alternating-gaze condition, but not in the other two conditions; furthermore, the experimenter's alternating gaze influenced Chinese children to be more generous, but had no significant effect on American children. This suggests that compared to American children, Chinese children may be more compliant with others' requests communicated through a subtle cue of eye gaze. The study demonstrates important differences in sharing behaviors between American and Chinese preschoolers, and these differences are consistent with the cultural constructs of individualism and collectivism. K E Y W O R D S cross-cultural differences, eye gaze, non-verbal communication, preschooler, sharing behavior | I NTR OD U CTI ONA large body of evidence shows that people not only care about their own well-being, as assumed in classic economics, but they also show prosocial behavior that benefits others, such as helping, collaboration, comforting, and sharing (

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 58%

‘She is looking at me! Shall I share?’ How Chinese and American preschoolers respond to eye gaze during sharing

Chen

Gros‐Louis

et al. 2018

Social Development

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“…The construct of culture encompasses a wide range of shared beliefs, procedures, assumptions, tools, and norms (Triandis & Suh, ), but remains ill‐defined. Distinctions have often been made between individualistic cultures, those represented in North America and Western Europe and collectivistic cultures, those present in large portions of Asia and Africa (Imada, Carlson & Itakura, ; Ji, Nisbett & Su, ) or industrialized versus subsidence‐based economies, or Eastern vs. Western, small‐scale vs. large‐scale societies (de Guzman, Do & Kok, ). However, there are many aspects to culture beyond this, including complexity and tightness, in‐group identity (Triandis, ), size of the economy, and degree of market integration (Henrich et al ., ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The development of generosity and moral cognition across five cultures

Cowell

Lee

Malcolm‐Smith

et al. 2016

Developmental Science

116

105

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Morality is an evolved aspect of human nature, yet is heavily influenced by cultural environment. This developmental study adopted an integrative approach by combining measures of socioeconomic status (SES), executive function, affective sharing, empathic concern, theory of mind, and moral judgment in predicting sharing behavior in children (N = 999) from the age of 5 to 12 in five large-scale societies: Canada, China, Turkey, South Africa, and the USA. Results demonstrate that age, gender, SES, culture, and social cognitive mechanisms explain over 20% of the variance worldwide in children's resource allocation. These findings are discussed in reference to standard cultural comparisons (individualist/collectivist), as well as the degree of market integration, and highlight continuities and discontinuities in children's generosity across urban contexts.

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“…Prosocial behavior is the result of a complex and dynamic relationship between the individual and environmental processes (Köster & Kärtner, 2019;Rogoff, 2014). Our study responds to the pressing need for research with diverse communities and from diverse methodologies in order to address cultural variation in socialization practices and ecological factors related to prosocial behavior (Callaghan & Corbit, 2018;de Guzman et al, 2014). This study on learning to help at home represents one instance of prosocial behavior and provides an opportunity to understand children's views and motivations to help others (Bowes & Goodnow, 1996).…”

Section: Motivation To Helpmentioning

confidence: 97%

How Yucatec Maya Children Learn to Help at Home

2021

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Children’s household contributions have been studied across cultural communities, mostly on the basis of maternal reports. Less is known about children’s views of their contributions. This study examines Yucatec Maya children’s ethnotheories of learning to help at home and their motivation for helping. We interviewed 38 7- to 11-year-old children in two communities in the Yucatán Peninsula, México. Children in both communities contributed substantially to their families by regularly taking the initiative to help with family work. Children explained that they like to help and that helping is a shared responsibility among family members. Children’s sense of belonging and responsibility to the family seemed to be the driving forces in their contributions, as they pay attention to the needs of the family and take the initiative to learn and help. These findings demonstrate the relevance of studying children’s ethnotheories to understand cultural variations on learning to help at home.

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The Cultural Contexts of Children’s Prosocial Behaviors

Cited by 24 publications

References 78 publications

‘She is looking at me! Shall I share?’ How Chinese and American preschoolers respond to eye gaze during sharing

‘She is looking at me! Shall I share?’ How Chinese and American preschoolers respond to eye gaze during sharing

The development of generosity and moral cognition across five cultures

How Yucatec Maya Children Learn to Help at Home

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