Five-to-six-year olds are more likely to be kind to peers after observing them interacting with other children in positive ways, suggesting that children establish a sense of their peers' 'reputation' early in life. The results are published August 7 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Kenji Onishi and colleagues from Osaka University, Japan.
The researchers observed kindergarteners' day-to-day behavior and found that bystanders in a playground were more likely to offer an object or help a child whom they had seen being helpful to another child. Children were more likely to behave in pro-social ways when they observed their peers doing so. Observing another child's pro-social behavior also evoked positive emotions towards that child in bystanders.
Cooperating with someone based on their reputation, or observations of their behavior with other people, is crucial to the success of cooperative societies. Though being 'nice' isn't always reciprocated by the recipient, it increases an individual's chances of being helped by others in the network. The results of this study demonstrate children's behavioral tendency toward such social indirect reciprocity, and suggest that this may be mediated by the increase in positive emotions when a child was seen performing a pro-social action.
Citation: Kato-Shimizu M, Onishi K, Kanazawa T, Hinobayashi T (2013) Preschool Children's Behavioral Tendency toward Social Indirect Reciprocity. PLOS ONE 8(8): e70915. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070915
Financial Disclosure: Mayuko Kato-Shimizu was financially supported by Grant-in-Aid for Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellows (No. 22–3450, JSPS, http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0070915
Disclaimer: This press release refers to upcoming articles in PLOS ONE. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.
About PLOS ONE: PLOS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLOS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.
All works published in PLOS ONE are Open Access. Everything is immediately available—to read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise use—without cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed. For more information about PLOS ONE relevant to journalists, bloggers and press officers, including details of our press release process and our embargo policy, see the everyONE blog at http://everyone.plos.org/media.
Journal
PLoS ONE