It isn’t always easy to raise your kids to be helpers—but research suggests that teaching might start even earlier than you thought.
Researchers observed 16 month olds during two separate experiments.
In the first, babies watched adults help or not help someone reaching for an object. They found babies were more likely to help the person if they had also seen an adult helping her.
Then they did the experiment again, to see if babies were really trying to help, or if the babies were just imitating adults.
This time, a third group of babies saw a person who had everything she needed on a table. Even though she did not need help, another adult moved extra objects from the floor to the table.
Researchers found that babies were still more likely to help when they saw an adult helping someone, and less likely to help if they hadn’t.
Babies from the third group who saw someone who didn’t need help fell somewhere in-between.
This research suggests parents can teach their children to be helpful by helping others themselves.
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