Extrinsic rewards undermine altruistic tendencies in 20-month-olds.

Full Abstract

The current study investigated the influence of rewards on very young children's helping behavior. After 20-month-old infants received a material reward during a treatment phase, they subsequently were less likely to engage in further helping during a test phase as compared with infants who had previously received social praise or no reward at all. This so-called overjustification effect suggests that even the earliest helping behaviors of young children are intrinsically motivated and that socialization practices involving extrinsic rewards can undermine this tendency.

Author information

Author/s: Warneken, Felix (F); Tomasello, Michael (M);

Affiliation: Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany. warneken(-atsign-)eva.mpg.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Developmental psychology (Dev Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Nov; vol 44 (issue 6) : pp 1785-8

Dates: Created 2008/11/12; Completed 2009/02/02;

PMID: 18999339, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00)

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