Children’s intergroup helping: The role of empathy and peer group norms

Highlights

• Two studies examined children’s (8–13 years) intergroup helping intentions.

• In a low need public helping context, children intend to help out-group peers more.

• Public out-group helping in low need depends on the norm about the out-group.

• When the need is high, empathy outweighs children’s group norm considerations.

• Neither study showed developmental differences in children’s intention to help.

Abstract

Two studies examined children’s (8- to 13-year-olds) intergroup helping intentions. In Study 1, 856 children indicated their intention to help national in-group or out-group peers in a high need situation and in either a public or private context. Results showed that children’s empathic tendencies predicted their intention to help and that the context as well as recipients’ group membership had no effects. In Study 2, 388 children indicated their intention to help in-group and out-group peers in either a low need or high need situation. Results of Study 1 were replicated. In addition, in the low need situation and when helping was public, children intended to help out-group peers more than in-group peers, particularly when they perceived an accepting descriptive classroom norm about the out-group. When the need was relatively high, empathy appeared to outweigh children’s group norm considerations. In all analyses, no age differences were found.

Introduction

The human capacity to take care of others emerges early in life. Young children are capable of understanding another person’s need (Eisenberg, 1992); they often respond with empathy and prosociality (Eisenberg and Fabes, 1998, Thompson et al., 1997, Zahn-Waxler et al., 1992) and offer help already at 18 months of age (Warneken & Tomasello, 2006). Children have a tendency to empathize and help others in need (e.g., Eisenberg, 1992). Yet, prosociality has been predominantly studied in interpersonal contexts, and less is known about children’s intergroup helping in which ethnic, national, or other group boundaries are salient. Furthermore, whereas an increasing number of studies examine the role of social group norms in children’s negative intergroup attitudes (e.g., Abrams and Rutland, 2008, De França and Monteiro, 2013, Nesdale and Lawson, 2011), not much is known about the influence of these norms in intergroup helping situations.

The current experimental vignette research examines the roles of children’s (8- to 13-year-olds) empathic tendency and perceived group norms in an intergroup helping context. In two studies, Dutch children’s public or private intention to help Dutch in-group peers or German out-group peers was investigated. Study 1 examined helping intentions in relation to children’s empathy when the need for help was relatively high. Study 2 also assessed a low need situation in which concerns about social group norms are likely to emerge. These concerns were examined by manipulating help within a public or private classroom context and by assessing perceived classroom norms about the out-group. Below, we first discuss hypotheses pertaining to the role of empathy in children’s helping intentions (Studies 1 and 2). Next, we discuss expectations relating to the high need context (Study 1), followed by the hypotheses for the low need context (Study 2).

During primary school, children increasingly help others by sharing objects or money and assisting in emergency situations (Eisenberg, 1992, Radke-Yarrow et al., 1983). Numerous researchers have shown that prosocial behavior is related to children’s disposition to empathize with others (e.g., Eisenberg, 1992, Eisenberg et al., 2001, Eisenberg et al., 1987, Malti et al., 2009), and empathic children help more when there are clear cues indicating need and distress (e.g., Eisenberg, 1992, Gelfand et al., 1975, Li et al., 2013). Therefore, we expect that in general more empathic children will intend to help more.

Whereas empathy can be expected to influence children’s general intention to help others, additional considerations are likely to be important when children think about helping in-group or out-group members in a public or private context. Study 1 examined children’s intention to help when need is relatively high. Children aged 8 to 13 years consider it a moral obligation to help in high need situations (e.g., Sierksma, Thijs, Verkuyten, & Komter, 2014). Social cognitive domain theory (Turiel, 1983) argues that moral considerations are general, obligatory, and inalterable. From early childhood onward, children understand and apply moral principles in their reasoning about social behavior (Killen, Lee-Kim, McGlothlin, & Stangor, 2002) and do not differentiate among different recipients when need is high (Miller, Bersoff, & Harwood, 1990). High need situations tend to evoke moral concerns that are general and not context or target specific. In these situations, one is morally expected to offer help independent of whether others are present and whether it is an in-group or out-group member who needs help. Therefore, in the context of high need (Study 1), we expected that children’s intention to help would depend on their empathic disposition and not on the context of helping (i.e., public vs. private) or the group membership of the peer in need of help (i.e., in-group vs. out-group).

When need for help is less urgent, children not only may feel morally obliged to offer help but also may consider peer group norms. Therefore, in Study 2 we compared a low need situation with a high need situation and considered group norms. Children have a basic desire to be accepted and to belong (Baumeister & Leary, 1995), and peers are significant others who function as important sources for appropriate behavior (Killen et al., 2002, Smetana et al., 2009). Peer group norms about intergroup relations become salient around middle childhood (Killen, Rutland, Abrams, Mulvey, & Hitti, 2013) and affect children’s intergroup attitudes and behavioral intentions (Bigler et al., 1997, De França and Monteiro, 2013, Nesdale and Lawson, 2011). Moreover, children adjust their intergroup behavior to the specific in-group norm (FitzRoy & Rutland, 2010) and disapprove of others who do not do so (Abrams and Rutland, 2008, Killen and Stangor, 2001).

In a public context where accountability is relatively high, social norms become salient and promote self-presentational behavior (Rutland, Cameron, Milne, & McGeorge, 2005). From kindergarten onward, children are concerned about their social reputation and understand how impression management might influence behavior of others (e.g., Banerjee et al., 2010, Banerjee and Yuill, 1999, Hatch, 1987, Sluckin, 1981). Children as young as 5 years behave more generously when they know that others are aware of their behavior (Leimgruber et al., 2012, Sierksma et al., 2014b), and the presence of peers influences children’s spontaneous positive affective responses (e.g., Castelli & Tomelleri, 2008). This means that in public contexts and when the situation involves low need, children might help peers relatively more. Thus, for Study 2, we hypothesized that children would intend to help more in public circumstances compared with private circumstances.

However, helping might also be related to who the recipient of help is. Children tend to focus on and prefer their in-group (Nesdale, 2007), and there is a general tendency to be concerned about the welfare of fellow in-group members (Brewer, 2007). Although refusing to help an in-group member might invite disapproval by the social group, providing in-group help is common and, thus, not very noteworthy (Hopkins et al., 2007). In contrast, out-group helping is less common and tends to attract more attention. This means that helping out-group members might be more effective to present oneself in a positive way and to be socially accepted. Yet, it is likely that this depends on perceived out-group norms. Out-group helping should invite approval by one’s peer group when the peer group norm about the out-group is relatively positive and not when the norm is rather negative. Therefore, in Study 2, children’s perception of the descriptive classroom norm about the out-group was examined. Descriptive norms refer to what important others do and think (Cialdini, Kallgren, & Reno, 1991). We expected that children would help the out-group relatively more in a public setting where there was a positive descriptive norm about the out-group. In testing this prediction, we also considered children’s own attitude toward the German out-group. If children’s public helping intentions are guided by group norms, they should follow the descriptive peer norm and not their own out-group attitude.

In contrast to public helping, private helping should not depend on peer group norms. Therefore, when helping is a private matter and need is low, other motivations might be relevant in children’s consideration to help peers. Two contrasting predictions can be made. On the one hand, social identity research has shown that there is a general tendency to be concerned about the welfare of fellow in-group members (Brewer, 2007). Furthermore, social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) argues that the motivation to maintain a positive group identity tends to generate intergroup biases in which the in-group is favored over a relevant out-group. Research has shown that in-group preference is already present in children as young as 3 years (e.g., Kowalski and Lo, 2001, Martin and Fabes, 2001) both in the minimal group paradigm (Nesdale, Maass, Griffiths, & Durkin, 2003) and in real groups (e.g., Elashi et al., 2010, Patterson and Bigler, 2006). If social identity concerns motivate children’s private helping in a low need situation, this means that children will intend to help the in-group more compared with the out-group.

On the other hand, research shows that fair treatment and equal distribution are central to children’s helping and sharing behavior (e.g., Fehr et al., 2008, Geraci and Surian, 2011, Moore, 2009, Schmidt and Sommerville, 2011, Shaw and Olson, 2012, Sloane et al., 2012, Warneken and Tomasello, 2006). This suggests that children are intrinsically motivated to take care of others’ well-being. This means that when need is low (Study 2) and helping is private, children will intend to help in- and out-group members equally.

As they grow older, children develop a better understanding of how groups work, and they increasingly consider what is socially acceptable when expressing particular attitudes and behaviors (Abrams et al., 2007, Killen and Rutland, 2011, Nesdale, 2007). Furthermore, children develop a growing tendency toward displaying behavior that puts them in the best possible light to significant others (e.g., Aloise-Young, 1993, Banerjee and Yuill, 1999). Moreover, older children are better able to weigh various aspects in their decision to help, whereas younger children tend to focus more on the needs of peers (Eisenberg et al., 1987, Sierksma et al., 2014c). This makes it plausible that, with age, children become more responsive to norms of their peer group, especially in a public context. Therefore, it is likely that when the need for help is low (Study 2), older children’s intention to help will reflect the norm of their peer group more strongly compared with younger children. Age differences are less likely in the high need condition (Studies 1 and 2) and in the private context when need is low (Study 2) because social group norms are expected to be less important in these situations.

Two studies were conducted on children’s public and private intentions to help in- and out-group peers. In the first study, we aimed to demonstrate children’s intention to help peers in a high need situation and expected that children’s empathic disposition would predict their intention to help. The second study examined children’s helping intentions when need was either high or low, and in the latter condition social group norm considerations were expected to emerge. This means that in the public context, children are expected to help out-group peers more compared with in-group peers, but only when they perceive a positive descriptive norm about the out-group. Furthermore, these group norm considerations might be especially important for older children compared with younger children.

For low need and private helping, two contrasting predictions were formulated. On the one hand, children might help the in-group more compared with the out-group in order to maintain a positive in-group identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). On the other hand, children might intend to help in-group and out-group peers equally because fairness is central to helping. In addition, private helping should not be related to the descriptive norm about the out-group.

These predictions were tested by examining native Dutch children’s helping intentions toward the German out-group and their Dutch in-group. Germany is the largest and most important neighboring country of The Netherlands with which children are familiar. Research has shown that Dutch children see Germans as a typical out-group and that they have mixed beliefs about Germans and rather neutral feelings toward them (Du Bois-Reymond, 1998, Verkuyten, 2001). Yet, and comparable to British children (Rutland, 1999), Dutch children tend to evaluate Germans less favorably than the Dutch in-group (Verkuyten, 2001). These findings indicate that Germany is a relevant and meaningful out-group for Dutch children.