Mastery-Oriented or Outcome-Oriented Help? How Recipient Ethnicity and Task Difficulty Shape Children's Helping Behavior

Abstract

Teachers and parents often scaffold children to help others. Not all help is equally beneficial, however. We know very little about the ways in which children distribute different types of help. Across three preregistered studies, we examined when children provide others with help that can hamper learning (outcome-oriented help, e.g., correct answers) and when they provide beneficial help (mastery-oriented help, e.g., hints). Dutch children (total N = 532, 7–12 years) helped peers from different ethnic groups with difficult and easy tasks. In all three studies, children provided less mastery-oriented help when tasks were difficult. Children also gave less mastery-oriented help to Black peers when tasks were difficult, but only when they liked this ethnic group (Studies 1 and 2). Conversely, children helped White and Middle-Eastern children similarly (Study 3). Children might thus not always provide help that is beneficial to recipients in the long run, particularly when things get difficult and recipients belong to other ethnic groups they like.

Summary

• We examined when children (7–12 years) give peers outcome-oriented help (e.g., correct answers) and when they provide mastery-oriented help (i.e., hints).
• Across the three preregistered studies, children provided less mastery-oriented help when tasks were difficult compared to easy.
• For difficult tasks, children gave less mastery-oriented help to Black peers when they liked this ethnic group, but helped White and Middle-Eastern children similarly.
• Children thus provide less beneficial help when things get difficult and recipients belong to ethnic groups they like.