Do Babies See Helping as Kindness or Friendship?

14- and 16-month-old

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you. During the study, your baby will watch animated videos featuring two pairs of characters. Character A will consistently help Character B, and Character X will consistently help Character Y. Later, in a new context with only three of the characters present, Character B will require help again. We will monitor your baby’s looking time to determine whether they expect the original helper (Character A) to continue helping the same recipient (Character B).

When observing helping behavior, babies may either perceive the helpers as being 'nice' or infer that they are good friends. In this study, we ask if babies expect a helper to continue to help the same recipient they have interacted with previously, rather than an individual who previously received help from someone else. This study will help us better understand how babies understand prosocial behavior by asking whether they interpret helping as a sign of specific relationships or as a general prosocial disposition.

15 minutes

You will receive a $5 gift card to the Amazon US site (https://www.amazon.com/) for completing this study. In order to receive this payment, your infant will need to be within our specified age range on the day of the study appointment, your infant will need to be visible throughout the video, and you will only be able to receive one gift card per infant. You will receive payment within 1 week of participation.