THE COGNITIVE BASIS OF FUTURE-ORIENTED PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Two experiments examined the development of future-oriented prosocial behavior in relation to developing theory of mind and executive functi oning. Children from 3;0 to 4;6 were given a series of trials in which they had to make a choice between immediate and delayed sticker rewar ds, where these rewards accrued either to self, to a play partner, or were shared They also were presented with standard theory of mind task s (in Experiment I) assessing the understanding of belief and desire a nd an executive function task (in Experiment 2) in which the children had to inhibit pointing to a baited box in order to win the cookie wit hin. Results showed that for 4-year-olds, the tendency to opt for dela yed rewards in order to share with the partner was correlated with the ory of mind For younger 3-year-olds, the children's ability to inhibit pointing to the baited box was significantly correlated with the tend ency to choose delayed over immediate sticker rewards. These results i ndicate that children's ability to show future-oriented prosocial or s haring behavior is linked developmentally both to the ability to imagi ne conflicting noncurrent mental states and the ability to inhibit res ponding to perceptually salient events.