ORCID
- Patricia Kanngiesser: 0000-0003-1068-3725
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Helping others is an integral part of human sociality, but systematic cross-cultural comparisons of children's helping behavior are rare. Existing work has mainly focused on interactions between adults and children, paying less attention to peer dynamics-which are more relevant in many cultural settings. Here, we report a study of 4- to 9-y-old children's (N = 336) spontaneous helping in 6 highly diverse populations in Latin America, Africa, and Europe (Wichí, Quechua, ≠Akhoe Hai||om, Samburu, Kikuyu, and Germans). In all settings, we observed pairs of same-aged children in an experimental task in which one partner could assist the other by providing either instrumental help or information. Across cultures, children reliably helped their peers by offering either type of help, with the provision of information increasing over age. We found striking commonalities in peer helping in all settings, with only small culture-specific patterns in children's responses. This suggests that helping among children is a universal human behavior which is subtly shaped by local norms and practices.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2026-10-06
Publication Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume
123
Issue
40
ISSN
0027-8424
Acceptance Date
2026-07-30
Deposit Date
2026-10-08
Funding
Data collection and coding were funded by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Jacobs Foundation, and the first author was supported by the European Union through a Marie-Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship while writing the paper. We would like to thank Nancy Njogu, Isaac Mwangi, Lucas Lepuyapui, Ewan Lesowopir, Richard Lesowapir, Julia Ohlendorf, Patricia Gutierrez, Dennis Salazar Gonzales, Disney Tjizao, Elena Rossi, Ronja Büchner, Laura Huber, Solveig Jurkat, and Luise Zimmermann for their help with data collection, transcriptions, translations, and coding. Open access funding provided by the Max Planck Society.
Keywords
Humans, Child, Peer Group, Helping Behavior, Child, Preschool, Cross-Cultural Comparison, Male, Female, Social Group, Child Behavior, Africa, Europe, Social Behavior
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Zeidler, H., Schäfer, M., Herrmann, E., Kanngiesser, P., Maurits, L., Haun, D., & Tomasello, M. (2026) 'Children from six cultures reliably help their peers-but in different ways', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 123(40). Available at: 10.1073/pnas.2515233123
