Graduate School of Education and Human Development, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan.
Faculty of Education, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2019 Apr;180:69-86. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2018.11.009. Epub 2019 Jan 9.
We examined age-related differences in evaluating reciprocal prosocial behavior (e.g., helping someone who has helped you) and unilateral prosocial behavior (e.g., helping someone who has previously refused your request for help). Participants were kindergarteners, second and fifth graders, and undergraduate students (N = 110). We examined the trait evaluations of reciprocal and unilateral prosocial protagonists, behavior predictions of the participants in reciprocal and unilateral situations, and behavior predictions of others (including reciprocal and unilateral protagonists and others known to the participants) in reciprocal and unilateral prosocial situations. Results revealed that most kindergarteners did not focus on whether help was reciprocal or unilateral, and there were no clear differences in trait evaluations or predicted reciprocal or unilateral prosocial behaviors. In contrast, older children and undergraduates tended to focus on the difference between reciprocal and unilateral help. They evaluated unilateral protagonists more positively than reciprocal protagonists, and they judged the likelihood that others would engage in unilateral prosocial behaviors as lower than the likelihood that they would engage in reciprocal behaviors. However, most participants, regardless of age, predicted that they themselves would act prosocially in both reciprocal and unilateral situations. We discuss how the current results have implications for research on age-related trends in evaluating reciprocity and morality.
我们考察了年龄相关差异在评估互惠亲社会行为（例如，帮助曾经帮助过你的人）和单边亲社会行为（例如，帮助之前拒绝过你帮助请求的人）中的作用。参与者包括幼儿园儿童、二年级和五年级学生以及大学生（N=110）。我们考察了互惠和单边亲社会主角的特质评估、参与者在互惠和单边情境中的行为预测，以及在互惠和单边亲社会情境中他人（包括互惠和单边主角以及参与者认识的其他人）的行为预测。结果表明，大多数幼儿园儿童并不关注帮助是互惠的还是单边的，在特质评估或预测互惠或单边亲社会行为方面没有明显差异。相比之下，年龄较大的儿童和大学生往往更关注互惠和单边帮助之间的差异。他们更积极地评价单边主角，认为他人更有可能表现出单边亲社会行为，而不是互惠行为。然而，大多数参与者，无论年龄大小，都预测自己在互惠和单边情境中都会表现出亲社会行为。我们讨论了当前的结果如何对评估互惠性和道德的年龄相关趋势的研究产生影响。
