LAUSR

Infants and toddlers engage in instrumental helping, that is, help others in achieving an action-based goal. The underlying psychological mechanisms are unclear and hotly debated. The present study examined whether young children’s helping is affected by others’ need. To this end, 1.5- and 3.5-year-old children ( n  = 101) were simultaneously confronted with a needy and a non-needy other in a variety of helping tasks. The results show that the 3.5-year-old, but not the 1.5-year-old children preferentially helped the needy person. This suggests developmental changes in the psychological mechanisms underlying early instrumental helping. The results are explained by a developmental account according to which helping only gradually becomes an other-oriented and need-based behavior in the first years of life. We examined the nature of young children’s instrumental helping. 1.5- and 3.5-year-olds were confronted with a needy and non-needy other in several classical helping situations. 3.5-, but not 1.5-year-old children helped more the needy than the non-needy other. The psychological mechanisms underlying young children’s helping change during the first years of life.