Berlin: Contrary to their reputation for being selfish, children as young as three show a surprising level of concern for others and an intuitive sense of justice, a new study has found.
Young children are just as likely to respond to the needs of another individual as they are to their own, researchers found.
Toddlers have a reputation for being stubborn, selfish, and incapable of sharing.
Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig and the University of Manchester have found that children as young as three actually will show a surprising level of concern for others and an intuitive sense of restorative justice.
Young children prefer to return lost items to their rightful owners, the studies show. If for some reason that is not an option, young children will still prevent a third party from taking what does not belong to them.
What is more, both three- and five-year-old children are just as likely to respond to the needs of another individual - even when that individual is a puppet - as they are to their own.
The findings in young children from Germany offer new insight into the nature of justice itself, researchers said.
"The chief implication is that a concern for others - empathy, for example - is a core component of a sense of justice," said Keith Jensen of the University of Manchester.
"This sense of justice based on harm to victims is likely to be central to human prosociality as well as punishment, both of which form the basis of uniquely human cooperation," said Jensen.
In human society, cooperation is often encouraged by punishing free-riders. However, earlier studies have shown that chimpanzees do not punish cheaters unless they themselves have been harmed directly.
One way to understand the roots of justice in human society is to study the early emergence of the trait in young children.
Studies have shown that children are more likely to share with a puppet that helped another individual than with one who behaved badly.
They also prefer to see punishment delivered to a doll that deserves it than one that does not. By the age of six, children will pay a price to punish fictional and real peers.
Preschoolers can also be encouraged with threats of punishment to behave more generously, researchers said.
To find out what motivates a sense of justice in young children, Katrin Riedl along with Jensen and their colleagues gave three- and five-year-olds the opportunity to take items away from a puppet that had "taken" them from another.
Those children were as likely to intervene on behalf of a puppet "victim" as they were for themselves. When given a range of options, three-year-olds preferred to return an item than to remove it.
