User:Pauljosephconway/sandbox

Are Young Children Motivated to Help for Selfish Reasons?
There has been some debate over whether young children are motivated to help for selfish reasons. In one study examining 2 year olds, the researchers used an eye tracker to measure pupil dilation (a measure of sympathetic arousal) while they either a) helped the adult themselves, b) watched the experimenter help the adult, or c) watched the adult not receive any help. For example, one adult was building a tower out of blocks, but couldn’t reach the final block and acted mildly distressed. In the helping conditions, either the children or the experimenter handed the adult the final block. The researchers found that children’s eyes dilated more in the no-help condition than in either helping condition; it did not matter whether the child helped or watched another person help. The authors argued that this means children are intrinsically motivated to see others helped regardless of whether they are the helper or not; they don’t help only to get rewards. However, the authors cautioned that an alternative explanation is possible: perhaps children’s pupils dilated more in the no-help condition because the actor’s goal was incomplete. In their view this is unlikely. Perhaps future work will shed light on the issue.

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