The Effects of Prosocial Cartoon Examples on Children’s Donating Behavior

Abstract

Purpose In this study, we examined whether prosocial cartoons could inspire children to donate toys to others immediately upon exposure. Participants and Methods Cartoons were rated as prosocial or control via 80 adults. One hundred and fifty-six children participated in the study ( M age = 5.29, SD = 0.79). Children in the experimental group were exposed to cartoons in which the main character had a large number of donating behaviors, while children in the control group watched cartoons without donating behaviors (randomized controlled study). They watched these cartoons for 4 consecutive days. Afterwards, children’s donating behaviors toward their peers were assessed in the Toy Donation Task (TDT). An analytic method of 2 (cartoon: prosocial vs control) × 2 (gender: male vs female) × 3 (age: 4 vs 5 vs 6) analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to make result analyses. Results The empirical results indicated that watching cartoons specifically depicting charitable donations (and not cartoons with other prosocial content) increased donations for charitable causes, whilst watching the control cartoons (cartoons without prosocial content) which did not depict characters acting in an antisocial way did not increase donating behavior. Specifically, 5-year-old female children reported more donating behavior than 6-year-old female children and 4-year-old female children, whilst no significant age effects were found among male children. Here, 4–6-year-old female children and 4–5-year-old male children in the prosocial cartoon condition reported more donating behavior than those in the control cartoon condition. Conclusion These findings indicated an accumulating positive effect of watching cartoons with donating content on children’s donating behavior, especially for 4–6-year-old female children and 4–5-year-old male children.

Learning Moral Values Through Cartoons for Malaysian Preschool-aged Children

“…However, they rejected bad moral values portrayed by the antagonists, such as stupidity, laziness, aggression, bullying, irascibility, dominance, boasting, lying, and pride. These findings are in line with studies by Astuti et al (2019) and Zhang et al (2021), who argued that narratives and character arcs in cartoons with positive moral values can influence children's ethical and moral choices in their daily lives. Moreover, preschool children go through an imitation process in their cognitive development, causing them to easily imitate what they see and hear (Hasanah & Much, 2018).…”

Prospective associations of lifestyle patterns in early childhood with socio‐emotional and behavioural development and BMI: An outcome‐wide analysis of the EDEN mother–child cohort

“…and prosocial behaviours may be related to media contents, prosocial games being more likely played by girls. 56,57 Our findings suggest no evidence that lifestyle patterns at age 5 are associated with BMI z-scores at age 8, consistent with some previous cross-sectional studies. 10 Seghers et al suggested that physiological demands of growth and maturation may mask the relation between unhealthy lifestyle patterns and BMI.…”

“…This may thus partially explain why associations between a healthy lifestyle pattern and symptoms of hyperactivity‐inattention as well as prosocial behaviours were observed in boys and not as clearly in girls. It can be assumed that the girl‐specific association between the mixed lifestyle pattern (commonly characterised in boys and girls by high screen and physical activity times) and prosocial behaviours may be related to media contents, prosocial games being more likely played by girls 56,57 …”

Promoting Prosocial Skill in Early Childhood by Games with Rules

“…Their behavior will return to a basic level when a neutral toy is given. Another study also revealed that children's prosocial behavior increased after they watched together a television program designed specifically for learning (Mares & Woodard, 2005;Zhang et al, 2021;Zieunska & Chambers, 1995). The television program was reported to be effective in encouraging children's prosocial behavior during free play, encouraging cooperative attitudes, and preventing antisocial behavior.…”