Shortly after they turn 1, most babies begin to help others, whether by handing their mother an object out of her reach or giving a sibling a toy that has fallen. Researchers have long studied how this helping behavior develops, but why it develops has been examined less. A new study looked at the role of imitation to find that when 16-month-olds observe others' helping behavior, they're more likely to be helpful themselves.
The findings come from researchers at the University of Münster and Free University Berlin in Germany. They appear in Child Development, a journal of the Society for Research in Child Development.
"Our study is the first to demonstrate that observing helping, or prosocial, behavior in others affects infants' prosocial behavior and provides a critical mechanism in early prosocial development," says Joscha Kärtner, professor of developmental psychology at the University of Münster and senior author of the study.
[For more on this study by Society for Research in Child Development, go to https://www.sciencedaily.com/r.../04/180417130053.htm]
Comments (0)