The Influence Of Common Intentions In Interpersonal Coordination On The Prosocial Behaviors Of Children Aged 4-6

The present study explores the prosocial effect of shared intentionality on children aged from 4 to 6.The present study has 2 goals,namely examining the prosocial effect of shared intentionality in interpersonal coordination,and examining the prosocial effects of different forms of shared intentionality.This study includes 3 experiments.Experiment 1 shows that shared intentionality has prosocial effect,which lays the foundation for Experiment 2 and 3.Experiment 2 takes a deeper look into the conclusion of Experiment 1 by examining the prosocial effect of different forms of shared intentionality.Experiment 3 studies different forms of shared intentionality in a problem-solving paradigm and examines a wider range of more complicated forms of prosocial behaviors.Experiment 1 examined the prosocial effect of shared intentionality in joint music making activities by manipulating the joint model of beat consistency.In addition,we tested for the prosocial effect of behavioral similarity and contingency,as well as their interaction with beat consistency.Specifically,for the manipulation phase,we designed a music game which manipulated shared intentionality through beat consistency,and behavioral similarity and contingency through rhythm similarity and contingency.The study had a 2(consistent beats,inconsistent beats)× 3(similar rhythms,contingent rhythms,random rhythms)design.134 5-year-olds in same sex dyads were assigned to one of the six conditions.After the game,children participated in two unrelated tasks that measured cooperation and helping behavior.Results showed that:1.Children who played instruments to consistent beats showed greater prosocial tendencies in later tasks,compared to those who played to inconsistent beats;2.There was no significant difference in cooperating and helping behavior across different rhythm conditions.Experiment 2 examined the prosocial effect of different forms of shared intentionality by manipulating the level of coordination.Specifically,we designed an experiment that examined the effect of coordinative levels in music activities on subsequent cooperative behavior in children.In this study,78 6-year-olds in same sex dyads were assigned to either high-level coordination condition or low-level coordination condition.In the high-level coordination condition,children alternated playing instruments every measure;in low-level coordination condition,children alternated every eight measures.After the music activity,we measured children's cooperative behavior in an unrelated task.Results showed that children in the high-level coordination condition had higher cooperation rate compared to children in the low-level coordination condition,which indicated that shared intentionality trigged by high-level coordination has stronger prosocial effect than shared intentionality trigged by low-level coordination.Experiment 3 explored the effect of coordination level in a problem-solving paradigm on a wider range of prosocial behavior.Specifically,we examined the effect of coordination levels in a block-assembly task on subsequent helping/sharing behavior and generosity toward anonymous children.138 4-year-olds in same sex dyads were assigned to either high-level coordination condition or low-level coordination condition.In the high-level coordination condition,children alternated building bocks on every level;in low-level coordination condition,children only needed to combine their works in the end.After the block-assembly task,we measured helping/sharing behavior and generosity toward anonymous children in two subsequent unrelated tasks.Results show that:1.Children in high-level coordination condition were more likely to help/share than children in low-level coordination condition;2.Children in high-level coordination condition were more likely to donate stickers to anonymous children from other classes;3.Boys shared more stickers to anonymous children than girls,and boys appeared more willing to help their partners.In summary,we can draw the following conclusions:1.Shared intentionality promotes prosocial behaviors,and this effect might override that of behavioral similarity and contingency;2.In both joint music playing paradigms and problem solving paradigms,high-level coordination promotes prosociality more effectively than low-level coordination,and this effect can be generalized to non-participants;3.Boys in this study are more prosocial than girls.