Ontogeny of prosocial behavior across diverse societies

Bailey R. House*, Joan B. Silk, Joseph Henrich, H. Clark Barrett, Brooke A. Scelza, Adam H. Boyette, Barry S. Hewlett, Richard McElreath, Stephen Laurence

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Humans are an exceptionally cooperative species, but there is substantial variation in the extent of cooperation across societies. Understanding the sources of this variability may provide insights about the forces that sustain cooperation. We examined the ontogeny of prosocial behavior by studying 326 children 3-14 y of age and 120 adults from six societies (age distributions varied across societies). These six societies span a wide range of extant human variation in culture, geography, and subsistence strategies, including foragers, herders, horticulturalists, and urban dwellers across the Americas, Oceania, and Africa. When delivering benefits to others was personally costly, rates of prosocial behavior dropped across all six societies as children approached middle childhood and then rates of prosociality diverged as children tracked toward the behavior of adults in their own societies. When prosocial acts did not require personal sacrifice, prosocial responses increased steadily as children matured with little variation in behavior across societies. Our results are consistent with theories emphasizing the importance of acquired cultural norms in shaping costly forms of cooperation and creating cross-cultural diversity.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)14586-14591
Number of pages6
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume110
Issue number36
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 Sept 2013

Keywords

  • Development
  • Gene-culture coevolution
  • Population differences

Cite this