ArticleCognition2018
Infants' prosocial behavior is governed by cost-benefit analyses.
Article in Cognition, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 60 citations in OpenAlex.
- Testing effects of social rejection on aggressive and prosocial behavior: A meta-analysis.Aggressive behavior · 2022Pooled it
- Separate Neural Systems Value Prosocial Behaviors and Reward: An ALE Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2019Pooled it
- The effect of shame on prosocial behavior tendency toward a stranger.BMC psychology · 2022Trial
- Satisfying personal preference or being considerate? The protagonist's preference matters in children's evaluation of social mindfulness.The British journal of developmental psychology · 2026Article
- Face Culture and Prosocial Value Conflict: A Developmental Investigation of Children's White Lie Decisions Between Emotional Comfort and Long-Term Goals.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Expectations of Reciprocal Generosity Are Specific to Equal Relationships.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Online Academic Cheating in Young Children and its Prevention.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2026Article
- Should I Help? Moderating Effects of the Collaborative Aspect of the Helping Situation on the Attribution-Emotion-Help Relationship.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2025Article
- The Cognitive Architecture of Infant Attachment.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2025Review
- Decision-making of construction workers' waste reduction behavior: a study based on Cost-Benefit Theory and Cumulative Prospect Theory.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Not Playing by the Rules: Exploratory Play, Rational Action, and Efficient Search.Open mind : discoveries in cognitive science · 2023Article
- Preschoolers' attention to and learning from on-screen characters that vary by effort and efficiency: An eye-tracking study.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Human infants can override possessive tendencies to share valued items with others.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Cortical Activation to Social and Mechanical Stimuli in the Infant Brain.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2021Article
- Asking Children to "Be Helpers" Can Backfire After Setbacks.Child development · 2020Article
- Means-Inference as a Source of Variability in Early Helping.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Review
- Varieties of Young Children's Prosocial Behavior in Zambia: The Role of Cognitive Ability, Wealth, and Inequality Beliefs.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Cost-benefit analyses are central to mature decision-making and behavior across a range of contexts. Given debates regarding the nature of infants' prosociality, we investigated whether 18-month-old infants' (N = 160) prosocial behavior is impacted by anticipated costs and benefits. Infants participated in a helping task in which they could carry either a heavy or light block across a room to help an experimenter. Infants' helping behavior was attenuated when the anticipated physical costs were high versus low (Experiment 1), and high-cost helping was enhanced under conditions of increased intrinsic motivational benefits (Experiments 2 and 3). High-cost helping was further predicted by infants' months of walking experience, presumably because carrying a heavy block across a room is more effortful for less experienced walkers than for more experienced walkers demonstrating that infants subjectively calibrate costs. Thus, infants' prosocial responding may be guided by a rational decision-making process that weighs and integrates costs and benefits.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.