How Prosocial Modeling Promotes Children's Sharing: A Goal Contagion Account

Abstract

While a wealth of research evidence has highlighted the significant impact of prosocial modeling on shaping children's sharing behavior, the mechanism underlying this effect remains less understood. Here we consider the goal contagion account whereby children recognize the prosocial goal of others’ actions and these goals are contagious, encouraging children to subsequently be more willing to engage in prosocial behaviors themselves. Accordingly, children's prosocial modeling may generalize across different types of prosocial behaviors that share the same prosocial goal. We tested this hypothesis by examining whether observing a group of peers engaging in one type of prosocial behavior (social mindfulness) promoted another type of prosocial behavior (sharing) among 4-year-old and 6-year-old Chinese children (N = 128). The results showed that children who observed peers making socially mindful choices shared significantly more than those who observed random or preference-based choices, with this effect being particularly pronounced in 6-year-olds. These findings demonstrate that children's learning of prosocial behavior is transferable, with goal contagion serving as a potential foundational mechanism, underscoring the flexible influence of prosocial modeling on children's emerging prosocial tendencies.