What is it about?
When children enter a new social environment, they quickly observe how people treat each other and public property to figure out the "local rules" for being kind or selfish. This study found that even a brief introduction to a new place can cause children to change their own behavior to match that of the group. Interestingly, the children didn't just mimic specific actions; they used small clues to make generalizations about how helpful or selfish the community was.
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Why is it important?
Our work shows that, from a young age, humans will quickly judge how kind or selfish people in a new community are. When they have to interact with someone from the new community, they adapt their own kindness to fit what they see. Importantly, outside of the new community, their kindness still matches what they have observed in their own communities.
Perspectives
I hope that this article draws people's attention to the importance of building strong, close-knit communities. The work that we share here suggests to me that we can accomplish a lot through small-scale, positive, local interactions that enable us to "scaffold up" kindness.
Kari Britt Schroeder
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Children adjust behavior in novel social environment to reflect local prosocial norms inferred from brief exposure, PLOS One, July 2025, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0325984.
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