title: The effects of collaboration and minimal-group membership on children's prosocial behavior, liking, affiliation, and trust.
abstract: Recent theoretical work has highlighted potential links between interpersonal collaboration and group membership in the evolution of human sociality. Here we compared the effects of collaboration and minimal-group membership on young children's prosocial behavior (i.e., helping and resource allocation), liking, affiliation, and trust. In a design that matched as closely as possible these two ways of connecting with others, we showed that 5-year-olds' behavior was affected similarly by collaboration and minimal-group membership; both increased children's preference for their partners on multiple dimensions and produced overall effects of a similar magnitude. In contrast, 3.5-year-olds did not have a strong preference for either collaborators or minimal in-group members. Thus, both collaboration and minimal-group membership are similarly effective in their influence on children's prosocial behavior and social preferences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: maria_ploetner@eva.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Plötner
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, UK.
authors.forename: Harriet
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Over
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9JP, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Malinda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomasello
mesh_terms: D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D012932:Social Facilitation; D035502:Trust
keywords: Affiliation; Collaboration; Cooperation; Minimal groups; Prosociality; Resource allocation; Trust