How development and culture shape intuitions about prosocial obligations

Do children, like most adults, believe that only kin and close others are obligated to help oneanother? In two studies (total N = 1140), we examined whether children (~5- to ~10-yos) andadults across five different societies consider social relationship when ascribing prosocialobligations. Contrary to the view that such discriminations are a natural default in humanreasoning, younger children in the United States (Studies 1 and 2) and across cultures (Study 2)generally judged everyone—parents, friends, and strangers—as obligated to help someone-inneed.Older children and adults, on the other hand, tended to exhibit more discriminant judgments.They considered parents more obligated to help than friends followed by strangers—though thiseffect was stronger in some cultures than others. Our findings suggest that children’s initial senseof prosocial obligation in social-relational contexts starts out broad and generally becomes moreselective over the course of development.