Mind & behavior · 2015
Do 5-year-olds help less when someone else could help?
Yes, in this experiment. Children aged 5 helped an experimenter significantly less often when other people were present and potentially able to help than when they were alone. But helping was not reduced when the others were behind a barrier and unable to help.
Details
Does simply having other people nearby discourage children from helping, or does it matter whether those people can step in? Researchers compared how children aged 5 helped an experimenter when alone, when others were potentially available to help, and when others were behind a barrier and could not help.
Children helped at very high levels when alone. They helped significantly less often when others could potentially help, but helping was not reduced when the barrier prevented others from helping. This pattern supports the researchers' explanation that children felt less personally responsible when someone else could act, rather than simply being shy about acting in front of others or looking to others for cues.
The finding concerns this experimental situation, not every situation in which children might help. The abstract notes that earlier developmental research has sometimes found that others' presence increases helping. It does not report the sample size or how large the decrease in helping was.
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