The Role of Reciprocal Play in Fostering Early Altruism

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This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Andrew N. Meltzoff at the University of Washington's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist investigating the role of social interaction and reciprocal play in fostering early altruism. Reciprocal play is a specific form of social play involving turn-taking. The Fellow's prior work showed that reciprocal play can trigger young children's altruism in the immediate context. This project will examine how reciprocal play may foster altruism across contexts and time. Promoting altruism in children is a desirable societal goal, and thus the research has potential to have a broad impact. This results can be disseminated to help early educators and children at risk. Such information would be especially useful for parents, teachers and other practitioners working with children who commonly seek to promote positive social development in children. The research involves four interlocking studies that will: (a) examine how reciprocal play can encourage the spread of altruism across contexts, (b) examine how reciprocal play may maintain altruism over time, (c) assess whether other types of play show similar effects, and (d) examine how merely observing reciprocal play among others might potentially encourage altruism. Although developmental psychology has long held that positive interactions in early childhood are important in promoting a general prosocial interaction, this research will examine how specific everyday aspects of childrens' social experience that can shape altruism. The findings promise to have impact on developmental theory as well educational practice. The proposed work also sets the stage for the future design of intervention studies, which could provide information to educators and scientists on how to engender and promote social skills, including altruistic behavior, in young children.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.