Precocious Prosociality: Why Do Young Children Help?

Human prosociality is marked by the versatility with which we help across various contexts. New research highlights that this capacity emerges early in human ontogeny. In this article, I review evidence showing that young children’s helping is both flexible and robust, based upon inferential social-cognitive capacities and prosocial motivations. Then I discuss the possible evolutionary function of helping skills as an early-emerging trait. I use evolutionary theory and anthropological evidence to support the hypothesis that children’s helping affects adult subsistence in traditional societies and argue that evolution thus might have favored an early developmental onset of these behaviors. KEYWORDS—prosocial behavior; cooperation; altruism; empathy; evolution Research from developmental and social psychology has shown that we sometimes help others out of prosocial motivations that are aimed at benefiting another person and lack a hidden, selfish agenda (1, 2). That is, people might not be cold-hearted and selfish, but can be moved by a genuine desire to improve another person’s situation. Beyond the motivations for prosocial behavior, another often-overlooked feature of human prosociality is the versatility and breadth of our prosocial repertoire. We can assist others in many different ways, from the simple act of lending a hammer to the complex task of repairing a computer, from gathering crops and preparing food to sharing abstract resources like money. We have the cognitive flexibility to help in a variety of situations, even situations we have not encountered before. Young children already possess the basic skills that define human prosociality. In this article, I provide evidence for the versatility of human prosociality as an early-emerging trait that can be witnessed in young children’s helping behaviors. One essential component of children’s versatile helping is a coupling of prosocial motivations with social-cognitive abilities to infer goals across variable and novel contexts. I also discuss how natural selection may have favored such helping behaviors to emerge early, rather than late, in ontogeny. I use evolutionary theory and anthropological evidence to support the hypothesis that young children’s helping affects adult subsistence in traditional societies and therefore can provide inclusive fitness benefits to family members. YOUNG CHILDREN’S HELPING IS FLEXIBLE AND