Psychology: is it better to give or to receive?

Young children who have generous parents turn out to be more generous. American researchers from the University of California are interested in the question: give or receive? To study which of the two is more interesting for our health, they compared the behavior of children according to their education. They presented the results of their work in the journal Frontiers in Psychology on November 5th.

An example from the mother

Children between the ages of 4 and 6 whose parents exhibit more generous personalities showed a greater willingness to give away earned tokens to fictional children in need. The study involved 74 children and their mothers and was conducted again two years later. “At both ages, children with better physiological regulation and with mothers who expressed greater compassionate love were more likely to donate their earningsanalyzed Paul Hastings, professor of psychology at the University of California. Compassionate mothers likely develop emotionally close relationships with their children while also providing an early example of pro-social orientation to the needs of others..”

The researchers recorded the children’s heart rates to study their reaction through several experiments. In particular, the researchers explained to the children that they would earn tokens for a variety of activities and that they could be exchanged for a prize. The tokens were placed in a box and each child won 20 prize tokens. Before the end of the session, the children were told that they can give all or part of their tokens to other children, for sick children who could not come to play the game or for children in difficulty. The mothers also had to answer questions about their way of educating their children.

Being more generous makes you calmer

The results revealed that the generosity of the children is supported by the combination of their socialization experiences coming from their mother and their physiological regulation which functions as “internal and external supports for the ability to act pro-socially on each other”, wrote the researchers. The results obtained were the same at intervals of two.

The researchers also observed that being more generous seems to benefit children. At ages 4 and 6, heart rate recording showed that children who gave more tokens were calmer after activity compared to children who gave little or no tokens. “Prosocial behaviors can be inherently effective in quelling one’s own arousalsaid Paul Hastings. Being in a calmer state after sharing could reinforce the generous behavior that produced that good feeling.”