Felix Warneken & Michael Tomasello (2008)
Extrinsic rewards reduced 20-month-olds’ later helping, suggesting early altruism can be undermined by external incentives.
This study highlights that even in toddlerhood, helping behaviors are sensitive to how they are encouraged. It reports that providing extrinsic rewards can decrease young children’s subsequent altruistic tendencies, implying that early helping may often be intrinsically motivated. The findings caution caregivers and educators that rewarding prosocial acts might backfire by shifting motivation away from voluntary, self-driven helping.
Developmental behavioral experiment comparing toddlers’ helping under rewarded versus non-rewarded conditions.
Basic developmental psychology and motivation concepts, especially intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation (and related SDT ideas).
Experimental confirmation that a reward can trigger a shift in motivation from intrinsic to extrinsic.
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