TY - JOUR
T1 - With a little help from my friends: Bystander context and children's attitude toward peer helping
AU - Sierksma, Jellie
AU - Thijs, Jochem
AU - Verkuyten, Maykel
PY - 2014/3/4
Y1 - 2014/3/4
N2 - This experimental vignette study examined children's perceptions and evaluations of helping a peer, in the context of friendships and in the presence of by-standing peers. A total of 1246 children (8 to 12 years) reported their attitude toward helping when either friends of the helper, friends of the recipient of help, or no bystanders were present. In agreement with the competitive altruism model, children most strongly endorsed helping when friends of the helper were present compared to the other two situations. This indicates that children take reputation concerns into account when evaluating helping situations. However, in contrast to lower prosocial children, the evaluations of higher prosocial children were not influenced by the presence of by-standing peers. These children seemed to base their evaluation on increasing the recipient's welfare and less on reputation concerns of the helper.
AB - This experimental vignette study examined children's perceptions and evaluations of helping a peer, in the context of friendships and in the presence of by-standing peers. A total of 1246 children (8 to 12 years) reported their attitude toward helping when either friends of the helper, friends of the recipient of help, or no bystanders were present. In agreement with the competitive altruism model, children most strongly endorsed helping when friends of the helper were present compared to the other two situations. This indicates that children take reputation concerns into account when evaluating helping situations. However, in contrast to lower prosocial children, the evaluations of higher prosocial children were not influenced by the presence of by-standing peers. These children seemed to base their evaluation on increasing the recipient's welfare and less on reputation concerns of the helper.
KW - bystanders
KW - competitive altruism
KW - friendship
KW - helping
KW - loyalty
UR - http://www.mendeley.com/research/little-help-friends-bystander-context-childrens-attitude-toward-peer-helping
U2 - 10.1080/00224545.2013.872595
DO - 10.1080/00224545.2013.872595
M3 - Article
SN - 0022-4545
VL - 154
SP - 142
EP - 154
JO - Journal of Social Psychology
JF - Journal of Social Psychology
IS - 2
ER -