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6 - The Origins of Prosociality from a Developmental and Comparative Perspective

from Part I - Development of Prosociality

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2023

Tina Malti
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Maayan Davidov
Affiliation:
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Summary

There has been much debate on the origins of prosocial behavior: do humans come into the world ready to help others, or is this something that must be learned? In this chapter, we approach this question by examining evidence on the ontogenetic and phylogenetic roots of prosocial behavior. First, we examine work with young children, focusing on the earliest developing prosocial behaviors of helping, comforting, and sharing. We then complement this developmental evidence with studies on chimpanzees and bonobos to gain insight into which elements of prosocial behavior might be evolutionarily inherited. Taken together, this evidence suggests that humans have a biological predisposition for prosocial behavior that we share with our ape cousins and that human-specific socialization practices build on this foundation throughout the course of development.

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The Cambridge Handbook of Prosociality
Development, Mechanisms, Promotion
, pp. 108 - 126
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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