“The results suggest that altruistic behaviour may be governed more by relationships, even brief ones, than instincts. ‘I think the findings will stir up some controversy, but in a good way,’ Dweck said. ‘People often call something ‘innate’ because they don’t understand the kinds of subtle experiences that can make something, like altruism, flourish.”

Are children born nice?

It is one of the most debated concepts in psychology, whether altriusm is a result of nature or nurture.

Now, a pair of Stanford psychologists has conducted a new series of experiments that show altruism has environmental triggers, and is not something we are simply born with.

In 2006, a study involving toddlers found that the 18-month-olds were willing to provide a helping hand to the experimenters without being prompted.

This expression of altruistic behaviour in such young children aligned with what many scientists believed to be an expression of innate altruism, and the findings have served as the basis for dozens of studies since.

However, Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, a psychology graduate student at Stanford, and Carol Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology, suspected there might be more to the story.

The researchers behind the 2006 study engaged in a few minutes of play with the children, in order to make them comfortable with new people in a new setting, they found.

But this interaction, however brief, might have primed the toddler subjects toward altruistic behaviour and affected the outcome of the experiment, they believe.

‘Kids are always on the lookout for social cues, and this is a very prominent one,’ said Barragan, the lead author on the research paper.

‘Does the person’s play indicate that they’ll care for me? These actions communicate a mutuality, and the child responds in kind.’

Read More