CAREER: The Developmental Origins of Human Cooperation

人类共享宝贵的资源，帮助需要帮助的人，并在团队中共同努力，以产生超出任何个人能力的结果。然而，这些合作能力的起源是一个谜。其他物种似乎没有类似的行为-事实上，人类被描述为一种高度合作的灵长类动物。解决人类为什么表现出这些合作模式的一种方法是研究幼儿如何获得这些技能。幼儿最初是自私的，必须被教导成为利他主义者吗？还是人类有一种连孩子都表现出来的利他主义的生物学倾向？孩子们如何学会分享共同的资源并获得关于公平的想法？在NSF CAREER奖的支持下，Felix Warneken博士（哈佛大学）将对儿童的合作行为进行全面的发展研究。本研究旨在探讨幼儿与他人合作的基本心理过程。孩子们如何发现另一个人需要帮助？在什么情况下，他们会主动提供帮助？通过对幼儿的实验研究，本研究可以解决有关在发展早期发现的生物倾向的相互作用和影响这些行为进一步发展的社会化实践的重要问题。特别是，该研究将调查社会期望和规范的特点合作行为在成年人开始发挥作用，在儿童的发展。例如，成年人经常期望别人回报恩惠，并对什么构成公平分享有价值的资源有规范。因此，本研究旨在确定儿童在发展过程中何时开始注意到这些规范，当他们与他人合作。通过整合进化理论，社会心理学和儿童发展的见解，该项目提供了一个全面的研究儿童在发展过程中获得的合作技能。此外，该研究计划将为发展心理学的本科生和研究生提供广泛的培训机会，包括学生积极参与研究，以及为来自代表性不足群体的本科生提供津贴的暑期实习计划。它还将通过为课堂教师和广大公众免费提供的有关研究项目的教育材料，教育更广泛的公众进行心理研究。

Humans share valuable resources, assist others who need help, and work together in teams to produce outcomes that lie beyond the capabilities of any one individual. Yet the origins of these cooperative abilities are a puzzle. Other species do not seem to engage in similar behaviors--indeed, humans have been characterized as a hyper-cooperative primate. One way to address why humans show these cooperative patterns is to examine how young children acquire these skills. Are young children initially selfish, and must be taught to become altruistic? Or do humans have a biological predisposition for altruism that even children exhibit? How do children learn to share a common resource and acquire ideas about fairness? With support of a NSF CAREER award, Dr. Felix Warneken (Harvard University) will conduct a comprehensive developmental study of children's cooperative behaviors. This research aims to investigate the fundamental psychological processes that enable young children to cooperate with others. How do children detect that another person is in need? Under what circumstances are they motivated to help? By using experimental studies of young children, this research can address important questions about the interplay of biological predispositions found early in development and the socialization practices that influence the further development of these behaviors. In particular, the research will investigate when social expectations and norms that characterize cooperative behaviors in adults begin to play a role in child development. For example, adults often expect others to reciprocate favors and have norms about what constitutes a fair share of a valuable resource. Therefore, this research is to determine when during development children begin to attend to these norms when they cooperate with others. By integrating insights from evolutionary theory, social psychology, and child development, this project provides a comprehensive study of the skill-set for cooperation that children acquire across development. In addition, this research program will provide a wide range of training opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students in developmental psychology, including active participation of students in research, and a summer internship program with stipends for undergraduate students from underrepresented groups. It will also educate the broader public about psychological research through freely available educational material about the research projects for classroom instructors and the greater public.