Bounded helping: How morality and intergroup relations shape children's reasoning about helping

Abstract

The main aim of this book was to provide insight into children’s (8-13 years) cognition about helping behavior. Whereas developmental research has examined children’s prosociality in terms of dispositions and abilities, it tends to overlook the relation between recipient and helper as well as the social context in which helping occurs. Moreover, social psychological research on the development of intergroup cognition has provided insight into how the group context influences children’s reasoning about negative behavior, but little studies have focused on positive intergroup behavior. Combining insights from developmental and social psychology, the research presented in this book shows that children’s reasoning about helping behavior is multifaceted. The most important take-home message of this book is that children strongly value helping others, but that their reasoning about helping depends on the intergroup and social context. Four broad themes were addressed. First of all, children view helping others in general as a moral obligation. This means that they indicated that others should help, and did not change their view when peers or parents think otherwise. However, this does not mean that the obligation to help is independent of the group context, because children view helping group members as more obligated that helping non-group members. Second, when group identity is salient and group identification strong, moral reasoning can be overpowered by concerns for the in-group. Third, going beyond the intergroup relation of helper and recipient of help, the research presented in this book shows that is also matters who is present when helping occurs. By-standing in-group peers increase the endorsement of helping presumably because it offers an opportunity to present oneself favorably. Moreover, helping an out-group peer stands out, and it thus most effective for positive self-presentation. Lastly, the findings show that empathy is positively related to children’s reasoning about helping. In addition, stimulating children to take into account how a recipient of help feels overpowers in-group bias in their intention to help. Why we help others, even when we stand to gain nothing from it, has puzzled researchers for decades. This book offers a comprehensive and thorough look into children’s thinking about helping behavior. I have taken some important steps to incorporate the influence of group behavior and social context into the study of helping. By doing so we learn about the consequences of early group distinctions in positive behaviors. Ultimately such research should provide us with the tools to enhance intergroup solidarity.