Adults are more compassionate and are about twice as likely to contribute to charity when children are around, according to a new research from psychologists.
The research, conducted by social psychologists at the University of Bath and Cardiff University and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), examined how the presence of children influences adults’ compassionate motives and behaviors.
Approximately eight experiments and more than 2,000 participants, that the researchers asked adults to explain what typical children are like. After focusing on children in this way, participants subsequently suggested higher motivations towards compassionate values, such as helpfulness and social justice, and they reported higher empathy with the plight of different adults.
In a field study, that built on those findings, the researchers found that adult passers-by on a shopping street in Bath were more compassionate and likely to contribute to charity when more children were around relative to adults.
When no children were present and passers-by were adults, a student research team from the University of Bath observed roughly one donation each ten minutes. But when children and adults were equally present on the shopping street, adult passers-by were more compassionate and made two contributions every ten minutes.
These effects couldn’t be accounted for by higher footfall during busy times or whether donors were accompanied by a child or not. Instead, they suggest that the presence of children can nudge adults to act more compassionately and donate more often. The on-street contributions were made to ‘Bath Marrow’, a charity that supports people with blood cancer.
Interestingly, these findings point to a broadly applicable effect. The investigators observed that the ‘child salience impact’ was evident among both parents and non-parents, men and women, younger and older participants, as well as among those who had relatively negative attitudes towards children. The researchers involved suggest these effects may also have widespread compassion implications.
Lead researcher Dr Lukas Wolf From the Department of Psychology at Bath clarifies: “While previous evidence has shown that we are typically more helpful and empathetic towards children, no research has been done to date to examine whether the presence of children alone encourages us to be more pro-social towards others in general. Our research addresses this gap by showing that the presence of children elicits broad pro-social motivation and donation behavior towards causes not directly related to children.”
Dr Wolf says that this potential for widespread compassion effect is critical because it indicates society needs to consider new strategies to have children more involved in various aspects of life.
“Our findings showing the importance of children for compassionate behavior in society provides a glimpse of a much bigger impact,” he says.
“Children are indirectly dependent on how adults behave towards each other and towards the planet. Yet, children are also separated from many adult environments, such as workplaces and from political bodies where important decisions affect their futures.”
He adds: “The finding that the presence of children motivates adults to be more compassionate towards others calls for more integration of children in contexts where adults make important long-term decisions, such as on climate change.”
Various initiatives over recent years have been demonstrated to increase the prominence of youthful voices, such as Children’s Parliaments. Future work in the investigators involved in this study will look in more detail in the nature of the child salience effect and its compassionate effects for society and the planet.
Related Journal Article: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/19485506211007605