Young Infants Expect People to Help Others in Need

Young Infants Expect People to Help Others in Need | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Young Infants Expect People to Help Others in Need Rylie Putrich, Duangporn Pattanakul, Yuyan Luo This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5551168/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Do young infants expect people to help one another? In two experiments (N = 72), the present study examined 5.5-month-old infants’ helping expectations as they watched two female agents’ actions. After seeing one agent try but fail to obtain an out-of-reach toy and then exit, infants expected another agent to help by moving the toy within her reach and found it unexpected when the agent did not. Importantly, if the first agent did not try to reach for the toy, signaling no need for it, infants instead found it unexpected when the other agent helped. Together, these results suggest that infants at this young age already expect people to be helpful toward others in need. These findings thus shed new light on the early development of moral cognition. Biological sciences/Psychology/Human behaviour Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Psychology Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-5551168","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":392880679,"identity":"4b3ddbbc-21bf-4623-bf7e-311e89fdc321","order_by":0,"name":"Rylie Putrich","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA30lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLCCDww2yNwEwjoYZzCkQVgHiNXCzMNwmAQt5jNyD3/m+XM+cW3/GePPHyq2MfCz5xjg1SJzIy/BcA7P7cRtN3LMJA6cuc0g2fMGvxYJ6RyDhDcSIC08ZgwH224zGNwgYAtIywEeg3OJ286fMf5w8N9tBnsitBg28iQcSNx2IMdA4mAD0BYJQlrk3yUzzjiQbLztRlqZxJljt3kkzjwrwK+F5+zhDx/+2MluO39484eKmtty/O3JG/BqYWDggTE4DFC4xGhhf0CE6lEwCkbBKBiJAADYvU8wBWCQjgAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Missouri - Columbia","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Rylie","middleName":"","lastName":"Putrich","suffix":""},{"id":392880680,"identity":"3b933aaa-6a20-412c-aac9-6572c40b4a8e","order_by":1,"name":"Duangporn Pattanakul","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"The University of Tennessee","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Duangporn","middleName":"","lastName":"Pattanakul","suffix":""},{"id":392880681,"identity":"4fdacf96-5be5-47c8-8bff-72360d9a73b9","order_by":2,"name":"Yuyan Luo","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Missouri - Columbia","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yuyan","middleName":"","lastName":"Luo","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-11-29 19:35:06","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5551168/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5551168/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":78953620,"identity":"dcbd1c9a-97e0-4815-8ecb-fc1d458d1ae8","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-03-21 09:33:45","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":423607,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Article File","description":"","filename":"Putrichetal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5551168/v1_covered_f614087b-3f55-4d30-bd5a-d9d92abd9e23.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Young Infants Expect People to Help Others in Need","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5551168/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5551168/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Do young infants expect people to help one another? In two experiments (N = 72), the\r\npresent study examined 5.5-month-old infants’ helping expectations as they watched two female\r\nagents’ actions. After seeing one agent try but fail to obtain an out-of-reach toy and then exit,\r\ninfants expected another agent to help by moving the toy within her reach and found it\r\nunexpected when the agent did not. Importantly, if the first agent did not try to reach for the toy,\r\nsignaling no need for it, infants instead found it unexpected when the other agent helped.\r\nTogether, these results suggest that infants at this young age already expect people to be helpful\r\ntoward others in need. 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