Children Are Not Born Nice, Says Study

Photo: James Peragine/Getty Images

From the moment they’re born, parents lavish praise their little ones. “What an angel,” they say. “Aw, she’s so sweet.” But it turns out, children may not be born nice at all.

According to a new study published in the November issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the practice of altruism isn’t innate; it’s influenced by environmental factors. 

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"I think the findings will stir up some controversy, but in a good way," lead study author Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University said in a press release. ”People often call something ‘innate’ because they don’t understand the kinds of subtle experiences that can make something, like altruism, flourish.”

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Dweck and her partner, psychology graduate student Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, were skeptical of a 2006 study of 18-month-old kids which found they were willing to help without being prompted – so they revamped the experiment.

They split a group of 34 children, ages one and two, into different groups. In the first group (which mimicked the 2006 study), a researcher rolled a ball back and forth with a child while chatting. The adult then knocked over an object and watched to see whether the kid picked it up. In the second group, a researcher and child each played with a ball on their own (“parallel play”), while talking. The adult also knocked over an object.

The results: Children who took part in the reciprocal, back-and-forth play were three times more likely to pick up the fallen item as kids who engaged in parallel play. That bit of interaction may have primed the toddlers to help out, the researchers concluded.

“Kids are always on the lookout for social cues, and this is a very prominent one,” Barragan said in the press release. “Does the person’s play indicate that they’ll care for me? These actions communicate a mutuality, and the child responds in kind.”

To cultivate altruism at home, parents would do well to practice it themselves. “Kids tend to look at what parents do, not what they say,” E. Gil Clary, a psychology professor at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, said in an American Academy of Pediatrics press release. “And kids are more likely to pay attention to a model if they have a good relationship with their parents,” he adds.

Mom and dad can also encourage collaboration and emphasize shared goals, according to a story published by the University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. “When kids have to work together on a task, they’re much more likely to share the fruits of their efforts evenly.” Students who participate in small-group, cooperative learning exercises are “more likely to show kindness toward their classmates.”

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