Evolutionary anthropologists commonly describe humans as a highly cooperative species, based on our evolved socio-cognitive capacities. However, students and the general public may not necessarily share this view about our species. At the same time, fostering our ability to cooperate is considered a key foundation for achieving sustainable…

The aim of our cross-sectional investigation was to explore prosocial behavior at the ages of 9, 11, and 13, and to reveal associations between this social behavior and some background variables such as age, gender, and parents' educational attainment. The participants were 185 Hungarian students and their teachers. Two Likert-type questionnaires…

This study investigated the development of sharing expectations and sharing behavior in 3 groups of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. We examined (a) whether preschool children expect a person to share more with a friend than with a disliked peer and (b) whether their expectation about others' sharing behavior depends on whether there is a cost or…

Group decision making should be particularly beneficial when group members share unique information, because then a group can make a better decision than each group member alone. This study examined how elementary-school children share unique information during group decision making. Seventy-nine groups of 3 same-sex and same-age 7- and 9-year-old…

It has been argued that children who possess an advanced theory of mind (ToM) are more likely to act prosocially, yet the empirical findings are mixed. To address this issue definitively, a meta-analytic integration of all prior literature that met appropriate inclusion criteria was conducted. In total, 76 studies including 6,432 children between…

On 2 consecutive days, a total of 96 children were observed in groups of 3, once with scarce and once with ample toy resources. Sharing was affected by the number of toys and availability of duplicate toys. When pressured by peers, one year olds shared more often than did two year olds. (BC)

Investigated young children's social interactions with a baby in a group care setting. Observations of young children as they responded to an infant revealed differences in comforting, sharing, and cooperation according to age and sex. Also, toddlers' social interactions with the infant increased after the infant reached 18 months of age, and…